In cardiovascular surgery using extracorporeal circulation, central temperature is commonly monitored by esophageal temperature and rectal temperature.In extracorporeal circulation, measurement by tympanic temperature is superior and recommended for response to a sudden drop or rise in body temperature.Conventional tympanic membrane temperature measurement requires direct contact of the probe with the tympanic membrane, which is highly invasive.Non-contact types also existed, but they were not suitable for monitoring because continuous measurement could not be performed and changes in central temperature were difficult to notice.Considering these problems, CE Thermo (manufactured by NIPRO), which does not contact the tympanic membrane and allows continuous measurement, became available, and we examined the possibility of using it for monitoring central temperature in pediatric extracorporeal circulation.
In monitoring, tympanic and esophageal temperatures were measured continuously during surgery and recorded at 1-minute intervals.CE ThermoⓇ was used to measure tympanic temperature and MonathermⓇ (Covidien) was used to measure esophageal temperature.The following items were compared: (1) the ability of the temperature measurement to follow changes in body temperature, (2) the correlation between the two, and (3) the simplicity of use.
