Temperature and haemodynamic effects of a 100 mL bolus of 20% albumin at room versus body temperature in cardiac surgery patients

OBJECTIVE: To study the temperature and haemodynamic effects of room versus body temperature 20% albumin fluid bolus therapy (FBT). DESIGN: Single-centre, prospective, before–after trial. SETTING: A tertiary intensive care unit (ICU) in Australia. PARTICIPANTS: Sixty ventilated post-cardiac surgery patients. INTERVENTION: Room versus body temperature 100 mL 20% albumin FBT. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: We recorded haemodynamic data from FBT start to 30 minutes after FBT. The cardiac index (CI) response was defined by a CI increase > 15%, and the mean arterial pressure (MAP) response was defined by a MAP increase > 10%. OUTCOMES: Immediately after FBT, median blood temperature decreased by -0.1°C (interquartile range [IQR], -0.1 to 0.0°C) with room temperature albumin versus 0.0°C (IQR, -0.1 to 0.0°C) with body temperature albumin (P < 0.001). The CI or MAP responses were similar. There was, however, a time and study group interaction for blood temperature (P < 0.001) for absolute and relative changes. In addition, mean pulmonary arterial pressure (PAP) (P = 0.002) increased more with body temperature albumin and remained higher for most of the observation period. CONCLUSION: Compared with room temperature albumin FBT, body temperature 20% albumin FBT prevents FBT-associated blood temperature fall and increases mean PAP. However, CI and MAP changes were the similar between the two groups, implying that fluid temperature has limited haemodynamic effects in these patients.