Clinical accuracy of non-contact forehead infrared thermometer and infrared tympanic thermometer in postoperative adult patients: A comparative study.

Abstract

Core temperature monitoring is important for the assessment and prevention of possible postoperative complications. The aim of the present study was to examine the agreement between the core temperature values and the forehead, tympanic membrane and axillary values in postoperative adult patients in clinical practice. The study measured the core temperature of 65 patients undergoing scheduled abdominal surgery using SpotOn™ and compared these with those obtained using non-contact forehead infrared, infrared tympanic and axillary thermometers. Correlation and Bland–Altman analyses were conducted for these comparisons. All temperatures were recorded at 4h intervals after postoperative arrival to the ward. Forehead temperature recordings showed a good correlation with the core temperature with excellent accuracy and was comparable to the tympanic temperature. Both forehead and tympanic thermometers can rapidly and effectively measure the core temperature during early postoperative period. Considering patients’ safety, non-contact forehead infrared thermometers may be useful for postoperative monitoring.

Influence of Hospital Environmental Variables on Thermometric Measurements and Level of Concordance: A Cross-Sectional Descriptive Study

“…Importantly, the frequent use of these instruments in clinical settings generates a significant amount of waste production, particularly of disposable plastic cannulas (caps). However, the study in [38] presented a rather small sample size and the correlation was surprisingly good, especially for Non-Contact TMs on the forehead. In most cases, this is not possible because the influencing factors (especially sweating in febrile but also non-febrile subjects), especially with elevated body temperatures, are too robust and cause large deviations.…”

“…Some authors have highlighted the poor performance of electronic axillary and tympanic thermometers compared to measurements of core body temperature [37]. Kameda [38] stated that a Tympanic Infrared TM can effectively approximate the core temperature and is quick and easy to use. Importantly, the frequent use of these instruments in clinical settings generates a significant amount of waste production, particularly of disposable plastic cannulas (caps).…”

A Novel Non-Invasive Thermometer for Continuous Core Body Temperature: Comparison with Tympanic Temperature in an Acute Stroke Clinical Setting

“…However, conflicting results have been found in determining its accuracy to predict fever, particularly when non-standardized protocols are adopted (e.g., distance, position, etc.) and the devices are not properly calibrated [8,[50][51][52][53][54][55].…”

Assessment of Alternative Body Points for Temperature Screening As Precautionary Screening During the Pandemic Using Infrared Thermometry

“…In a recent study by Kameda, it was reported that temperature measured using a non-contact forehead infrared thermometer displayed a good correlation with the core temperature, and the correlation coefficient was higher than those for the temperatures measured using infrared tympanic and axillary thermometers [ 24 ]. The results revealed excellent accuracy comparable to tympanic temperature, with clinically sufficient precision.…”