title: Insensible perspiration during anaesthesia and surgery.
abstract: Cutaneous and respiratory insensible perspiration were studied in patients during anaesthesia and surgery. The evaporative water loss from the respiratory tract was studied in 27 patients undergoing abdominal surgery. The method used was based on a fast-acting aspiration psychrometer, and the expired gases were heated so that no condensation could occur before the gases reached the psychrometer. The evaporative water loss from the skin was studied in 18 patients undergoing abdominal surgery. The method used was based on estimation of the vapour pressure gradient immediately adjacent to the surface of the skin. It was shown that the evaporative water and heat loss from the respiratory tract during surgery amount to about 10 g.m-2.h-1, resp. 25kJ.m-2.h-1, which is a 15% increase in comparison with normal breathing in an indoor environment. The loss from the skin was about 10 g.m-2.h-1, which does not differ from results obtained in healthy individuals in a corresponding environment.
mesh_terms: D000399:Air Pressure; D000758:Anesthesia; D006801:Humans; D006813:Humidity; D012143:Respiratory Physiological Phenomena; D012879:Skin Physiological Phenomena; D013514:Surgical Procedures, Operative; D013696:Temperature; D014870:Water Loss, Insensible / Q000187:drug effects