An oesophageal thermal tube for rewarming in hypothermia.

Five dogs were cooled externally with ice-bags to rectal temperatures of 21.8-24.8 degrees C. Rewarming was performed with a specially constructed double-lumen oesophageal tube with circulating water at 42 degrees C. With this device, rewarming of the dogs to 30 degrees C took place in 60-102 min (mean 82 min). Up to a temperature of 31 degrees C (the "cardiac safety temperature"), the rise in blood temperature was 4.5 degrees C/h +/- 0.79 (s.d.). Calculation of a "rewarming efficiency index" showed an inverse relationship between surface area and temperature rise per hour. The efficiency of this rewarming method is comparable to that of peritoneal dialysis. No after-drop in temperature was observed and there were no other complications during these experiments. Rewarming with an oesophageal thermal tube is very simple and safe to use.