A NEW study carried out in the region has shown that warming patients before operating on them reduces infections after surgery by up to 70 per cent.

The study, funded by a £90,000 grant from Action Research, took a year and a half to complete, while researchers carried out a clinical trial on 405 patients at North Tees General Hospital, Stockton, undergoing day surgery for complaints, which included hernias and varicose veins.

A third of the patients were put under an inflatable blanket filled with warm air for at least half an hour before their operation. A further third had a heated sponge dressing placed on the afflicted area and the final third were operated on without having undergone either warming procedure.

The patients progress was then monitored for six weeks after surgery, where it was discovered the group that were not warmed had developed post-operative wound infections.

Infection rates were eight per cent in the group whose whole body was warmed with the blanket and among those who received the localised warmth, only four per cent contracted infections.