Abstract:

BACKGROUND: With advances of anesthetic techniques, the use of general anesthesia gradually increased in renal transplantation, however, the changes of body temperature during surgery has rarely reported.
OBJECTIVE: To investigate body temperature changes of patients during renal transplantation under general anesthesia. 
METHODS: A total of 20 cases that underwent renal transplantation under general anesthesia with remifentanil-propofol were selected. The body temperature was recorded at 6 points, namely, after anesthesia induction, before anastomosis of transplanted renal vascular, before transplanted renal artery opening, at minutes 5, 30 and 60 after transplant renal artery opening.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: Compared with after anesthesia induction, the body temperature had no obviously changes at before anastomosis of transplanted renal vascular and before transplanted renal artery opening, which dramatically decreased at minutes 5 and 30 after transplant renal artery opening, but recovered at minutes 60 after transplant renal artery opening. It demonstrated that the body temperature indeed depressed during renal transplantation. However, by observing the whole process, it found that there was no significant drop in body temperature from after induction of anesthesia to before transplant renal artery opening, which revealed anesthesia drugs and the surgery process was not the main reason for low body temperature. While, at 5 minutes after transplant renal artery opening, the body temperature rapidly decreased, it indicating cold irrigation fluid into patient’s blood circulation after the opening of transplant renal artery was the main reason for the low body temperature, and this could continue for a very long time, even could not recovered at 30 minutes and 60 minutes after transplant renal artery opening. Result suggests that patients underwent renal transplantation with general anesthesia prone to hypothermia, the cold irrigation fluid into the patient’s blood circulation after the opening of transplant renal artery is the main reason for hypothermia.