The laboratory performance of the enFLOW (R), buddy lite (TM) and ThermoSens (R) fluid warmers

Abstract

We measured heating of isotonic saline by three fluid warmers in six experiments: saline at 5 degrees C or 20 degrees C delivered at 30, 50 or 100ml.min(-1). At the three flow rates, the enFLOW((R)), buddy lite and ThermoSens((R)) systems heated 5 degrees C saline to mean (SD) temperatures of: 41.1 (0.5) degrees C, 37.7 (0.6) degrees C and 39.1 (0.6)degrees C; to 40.3 (0.8) degrees C, 33.9 (1.6) degrees C and 39.3 (0.7)degrees C; and to 37.1 (0.8) degrees C, 24.0 (1.3) degrees C and 37.6 (1.0)degrees C, respectively, p<0.0001 for each experiment. The mean (SD) times taken to heat 5 degrees C saline were: 16.6 (1.7) s, 258.4 (58.9) s and 134.2 (79.6)s; 16.9 (1.8) s, 256.2 (62.2) s and 182.5 (74.5)s; and 21.5 (1.5) s, 275.9 (49.3) s and 313.5 (18.0)s, respectively, p<0.0003 for each experiment. The results for saline at 20 degrees C were similar. The enFLOW system heated saline above 36 degrees C faster than the ThermoSens system, whereas the buddy lite often failed to achieve 36 degrees C.