Determination of oral temperature accuracy in adult critical care patients who are orally intubated.

OBJECTIVE

To determine whether sublingual temperatures are accurate in adult critical care patients with an oral endotracheal tube in place.

DESIGN

Repeated measures quasi-experimental.

SETTING

University-affiliated tertiary care center in Western Canada.

SUBJECTS

Convenience sample of 33 adults (24 men, 9 women) with a mean age of 63 years undergoing scheduled open heart surgery and serving as their own controls.

PROCEDURES

Oral, rectal, and ambient temperatures were measured twice at a one-half hour interval the evening before surgery when subjects were not intubated and three times over an 8-hour period after surgery and after intubation. Pulmonary artery (core) temperature served as a reference and was measured along with endotracheal tube content temperature of the intubated subjects.

RESULTS

Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data. Results of the study supported the accuracy of oral temperatures in critically ill patients who were intubated. Mean oral temperature measurements were neither statistically (p > 0.05) nor clinically (+/- 0.14 degrees C) significantly different from mean pulmonary artery temperature at any of the three measurement times after intubation and a mean difference of 0.01 degrees C (0.17 SD) was noted. This was not significantly affected by endotracheal tube content temperature (p > 0.05). Significantly high correlations between oral and pulmonary artery (r = 0.92 to 0.96) temperature measurements also were revealed. A significant difference (p = 0.0001) in rectal minus oral temperature discrepancy between subjects with and without an endotracheal tube was noted.

CONCLUSION

Sublingual and pulmonary artery temperature measurements of adult critical care patients who were orally intubated consistently showed close agreement during a thermally dynamic 8-hour period after open-heart surgery.