The Effect of Perioperative Heated Sock Application on Hypothermia and Vital Signs in Bladder Tumor Surgery

Bladder cancer accounts for 2-3% of all malignant tumors and constitutes 6-8% of all malignancies in men and 2-3% in women. Globally, it ranks as the seventh most common cancer in men and the seventeenth in women. Bladder cancer is a significant cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide, with approximately 350,000 new cases and 150,000 deaths annually. At the time of initial diagnosis, around 75% of patients with bladder tumors are diagnosed with non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer. Of those with muscle-invasive bladder cancer, 20% are cases that have progressed from lower-stage disease. If left untreated, approximately 85% of patients with muscle-invasive bladder cancer will die from the disease . For invasive bladder tumors, the gold standard treatment is radical cystectomy. Radical cystectomy combined with pelvic lymph node dissection provides the best disease-specific survival in patients with invasive bladder tumors . Following radical cystectomy, the average 10-year disease-free survival rate is approximately 50-66%. During the surgical process, heat loss may occur due to the evaporation of cold solutions or through perspiration. Additional factors contributing to heat loss include the patient's exposure to the operating room environment without clothing, radiation exposure, and conduction due to contact with cold materials or the stretcher. Furthermore, preoperative hypothermia, fasting, and fluid deprivation; exposure of large body surface areas during surgery; use of volatile solutions for skin preparation; evaporation of cold solutions; perspiration; major open cavity surgical interventions; administration of cold IV fluids; prolonged surgical duration and exposure to anesthesia; intraoperative blood loss; peripheral vasodilation; anesthetic drugs; absence of clothing in the operating room; radiation; contact with cold materials or the stretcher; and impaired normal thermoregulation are all factors that may contribute to hypothermia.