Heat loss during thoracotomy. A preliminary report.

We became interested in the subject of heat loss after reading the work of Benzinger (1967), Roe, Goldberg, Blair, and Kinney (1966) and Cuthbertson, Smith, and Tillstone (1968). Benzinger (1967) from Bethesda has established a quantitative relationship between a fall in body temperature and a rise in metabolic rate. He has summarized some of his findings in a graph which is reproduced in Figure 1. The vertical axis represents the metabolic rate measured in calories of heat produced each second. The basal rate is 20 cal./sec. The horizontal axis represents the deep body temperature ('C.). Each separate line on the graph represents a constant average surface temperature. Three important facts are shown in this graph: