Effect of continuously warmed irrigating solution during transurethral resection.

The effects of a continuously warmed irrigating solution on body temperature during transurethral resection of the prostate and of bladder tumours were studied in forty patients. Anaesthesia was spinal and deep body temperatures of the forehead and lower abdomen were measured, using a deep body thermometry system. Both forehead and lower abdominal deep body temperatures decreased significantly in the patients who underwent transurethral resection of the prostate with an irrigating solution at operating room temperature, but did not decrease in the patients who received a continuously warmed irrigating solution. The same results were obtained for the patients who underwent transurethral resection of bladder tumour. Our results indicate that a continuously warmed irrigating solution could prevent the fall in body temperature during transurethral resection, especially prostate resection, under spinal anaesthesia.