Design of a Sectioned Warming Device to Prevent Perioperative Hypothermia

A healthy person’s homeostatic body temperature range is between 36^oC and 37°C. During a surgical procedure, the patient’s body is subjected to anesthesia and a cold operating room that disrupt the homeostatic temperature range and cause the patient to develop perioperative hypothermia. Current devices used to remedy the problem are ineffective, unsafe and limit access to the surgical site when implemented. The goal of this project is to design and prototype a medical device to non-invasively monitor and display the core body temperature of a patient, while also safely providing heat to the patient when necessary. A key feature of this design is that it allows a surgeon to have unrestricted access to any surgical site. This device will incorporate a sectioned design to allow for addition and removal of electric heating components at any location on a patient’s body with an emergency shut-off feature to ensure patient safety.