Neaton, Karen, Voldanova, Lucie, Keily, Tracey, and Nagle, Cate (2024) Non-pharmacological treatments for shivering post neuraxial anaesthesia for women having caesarean section: a scoping study. Contemporary Nurse, 60 (1). pp. 42-53.

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Abstract

Background: Shivering occurs more frequently for women having caesarean section under neuraxial anaesthesia compared to other patient groups and causes an increase in pain and interrupts bonding with her newborn.

Aim: This study aimed to report the evidence on non-pharmacological methods to treat shivering, defined as uncontrollable shaking, because of being cold, frightened, or excited, post neuraxial anaesthesia; the use of local anaesthesia inserted around the nerves of the central nervous system such as spinal anaesthesia and epidural in women having a caesarean section.

Methods: A scoping review was conducted using six electronic health databases that were searched with no restrictions placed on language, date, or study type.

Findings: Of the 1399 studies identified, following screenings only one study was deemed suitable for inclusion. The study, a randomised controlled trial, compared forced air warming blankets (intervention) with the usual care of warmed cotton blankets (control) and its impact on maternal and newborn outcomes. The only statistically significant difference found was the perceived thermal comfort of the mother.

Discussion: Non-pharmacological treatments for shivering are underrepresented in the literature; only one study identified where the impact of active warming was compared to warmed cotton blankets (usual care) for the measures of: oral temperature; degree of shivering; and thermal comfort pain scores. There was a decline in temperature in both groups at odds with some women reporting feeling too warm such that they asked for the active warmer to be turned down.

Conclusion: Social engagement strategies are interventions that send a signal of safety to the nervous system leading to a sense of calm and wellbeing and have biological plausibility and warrant evaluation. Recommendations for further research: design a robust study to test the effectiveness of social engagement strategies on shivering for women having caesarean section under neuraxial anaesthesia.

Item ID:	75465
Item Type:	Article (Research - C1)
ISSN:	1839-3535
Copyright Information:	© 2024 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent.
Date Deposited:	06 Feb 2024 03:32
FoR Codes:	42 HEALTH SCIENCES > 4204 Midwifery > 420401 Clinical midwifery @ 50% 42 HEALTH SCIENCES > 4205 Nursing > 420501 Acute care @ 50%
SEO Codes:	20 HEALTH > 2005 Specific population health (excl. Indigenous health) > 200509 Women's and maternal health @ 100%
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