Quantitative Heat Loss With Laminar Air Flow

With approval of the IRB at the Cleveland Clinic and written informed consent, the investigators propose to study up to 20 healthy volunteers in the protocol below as this will allow for drop-outs. As the investigators believe that 10 volunteers will provide sufficient power to detect clinically-meaningful differences between laminar air flow treatments. The study has been designed to find out whether heat loss increases significantly in laminar air flow operating rooms. Furthermore the investigators will find out whether active warming minimizes this heat loss. Increased heat loss increases the amount of perioperative hypothermia. It has been shown that perioperative hypothermia is associated with severe complications such as an increased incidence of surgical wound infections. On the other hand laminar air flow is explicitly used to decrease air-borne infections. Our study results will help to optimize thermal management of orthopedic patients.