Hypothermia can create unique challenges for surgeons when operating on burn patients. While hypothermia is usually known as what happens when a person is in cold water too long and their body loses too much heat, in the operating room, it can lead to increased infection, excessive bleeding, adverse cardiac events, or a change in the way drugs are working.
External temperature management techniques, such as warming blankets, are usually effective on patients. But when a person is burned, skin is destroyed and external methods are limited. Surgeons at the UM/JM Burn Center at the University of Miami Jackson Memorial Medical Center were the first in the world to use an intravascular warming method on burn patients during surgery and the first to publish the application in the medical journal BURNS. 
The technique uses the Thermogard XP ™ Temperature Management System to circulate warm water through a series of balloons threaded into the patient’s veins through a catheter. The water warms the burn patient’s body, therefore preventing hypothermia. The Thermogard system automatically monitors the patients’ temperature and a change as small as 0.01degree C triggers an immediate adjustment.
“Heat loss in patients with large burn injuries is common and preventing it is especially challenging,” said Carl I. Schulman, M.D., MSPH, FACS, associate medical director of the UM/JM Burn Center. “Here at Jackson, we’ve used this method to warm trauma patients – and our neurosurgeons have used it to cool patients –and we’ve also had the world’s first experience with burn patients. We are able to maintain a stable temperature while keeping our patients safe.”
