Post anesthetic shivering in children: incidence and causative factors

Patients loss their body heat during the anesthetic period and postoperative shivering is occurred to compensate it. To date, most of the studies about postoperative shivering were done in adults and there are limited data in pediatric patients. The aim of this study was to investigate the incidence of shivering in children and to reveal the causative factors as well as any possible clinical implications. This cross sectional study was performed on 200 pediatric patients with age ranging from 3 months to 14 years. Demographic data, kind of anesthesia, body temperature and recovery temperature were recorded. Data were analyzed using χ2, Spearman and Pierson tests. The incidence of shivering was 7%. Shivering was significantly more in the patients receiving inspirational anesthesia (13.6%) than in the patients receiving intervenes anesthesia (0%) (p<0.05). Shivering was high when body temperature was below 36.4ْC or when recovery temperature was below 26˚C (p<0.05). The incidence of shivering in patients who received pre-medication was lower than that of in patients who received no medication (p<0.05). The incidence of shivering in pediatric patients was related with their body temperature, recovery temperature, pre-medication and method of anesthesia.