Blood and Fluid Warming System; Helps Reduce the Risk of Hypothermia and Prevent Hemolysis

 

Blood and fluid warming system, or a blood and fluid warmer, is a medical device that is used in the healthcare settings to warm fluids, colloid, crystalloid, or blood product, prior to being administered to body temperature to avoid hypothermia especially in patients who are critically injured or recuperating from surgery. The system heats the circulating fluid to ensure fluid or blood is delivered to the patient at a temperature able to maintain normothermia. Blood and fluid warming system is used to warm blood or other fluids to reduce the risk of hypothermia. It is essential to warm it to an appropriate temperature not only to prevent hypothermia but also to prevent hemolysis, or breakdown of the blood cells.

Blood and fluid warming systems are available for different purposes, including patient care, laboratory use, and surgery. Some of the appliances may be pre-wired to a personal pump, while others have to be connected by oneself using a manual pump. Some also have features to pre-heat containers to allow quicker consumption. Blood and fluid warmers are commonly used in the operating rooms of hospitals. These devices can be useful for warming up fluids such as dextrose, glucose, and other high pressure liquid solutions to room temperature. One of the factors to consider when choosing a fluid warmer is its output temperature so that it can be used safely in the surgical units and laboratories.

Blood and fluid warming system is particularly useful in the perioperative period when patients are receiving intravenous fluids for a variety of reasons. Phlebotomy is a procedure where blood is drawn from the veins in the arm or leg of the patient and placed into a disposable bag. The process of phlebotomy requires that the patient is intubated and therefore under strict medical monitoring until the desired blood flow rate has been reached. Phlebotomists who need to measure blood flow rates often rely on the usefulness of fluid warmers to achieve this task. A warm, viscous solution of propylene glycol is added to the pre-warmed bag and passed around the inside of the patient's vein for a few minutes to achieve the desired blood flow rate.

It is then removed and discarded after completing the required number of pumps with room temperature pre-warmed fluids. Another use of the blood and fluid warming system is in the postoperative period when IV solutions may need to be warmed before being given to the patient. To achieve this result, hospital personnel place the heated IV solutions inside of sterile bags which are place in a specially designed warming apparatus. Once the required temperature has been achieved, the heated bag is removed and the pre-warmed fluids are reentered into the bag, followed by cold IV fluids to maintain the temperature at the targeted level.

As previously mentioned, blood and fluid warmers are particularly useful when patients require warm, stable, pre-warmed fluids for ongoing treatment. Blood and fluid warming systems are developed to reduce risk of hypothermia associated with the infusion of cold blood products.