This morning's New York Times business section has an article about Dr. Scott Augustine, the inventor of the Bair Hugger, a device used in the operating room that uses forced air to keep patients warm so as to reduce postoperative infections. Perioperative warming is one of the Surgical Care Improvement Project (SCIP) metrics. The Bair Hugger is now made by Arizant and Dr. Augustine no longer has any connection to the product. He has invented a new warming product that uses conductive fabric, called the HotDog warmer, and now claims that the Bair Hugger causes infections. The New York Times article points out that there may be some theoretical concerns for infection caused by the Bair Hugger, but no definitive evidence.
Addendum 12/30/10:
Dr. Scott Augustine emailed me about this posting and included a video which allows you to visualize the air currents when a forced air warming device is used. It's worth viewing and I think demonstrates plausibility for increased infection risk.
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