Introduction: cardiac surgery by cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) is performed accompanying with hypothermia. Measuring the body temperature during hypothermia is very important. The aim of this study was to compare esophageal, tympanic and rectal temperatures in pediatric patients below 12 years old undergoing open heart surgery. Methods: This study was a cross-sectional descriptive and analytic study. The sample consisted of 70 patients below 12 years old undergoing open heart surgery in Rajaee Heart Centre in Tehran. Esophageal, rectal and tympanic temperatures were measured by thermometer in three phases: before CPB, during CPB and after weaning of CPB. The collected data were analyzed by SPSS 16 software using paired T-test and ANOVA (Analysis of Variance). Results: The mean of body temperature was different in the three sites. The difference between right and left ear was not significant, but the difference between esophagus –rectum, esophagus-tympanum and rectum-tympanum was significant (P<0.001). All changes in four places showed that in hypothermia phase the reduction of temperature in ears was more than esophageal and rectal temperature, and in rectal, it was more than esophageal temperature. Conclusion: All sites are sensitive to changes of body temperature and they can show core temperature of body well, but since differences between all sites in four phases are not same, we cannot use just one of them to reach the temperature of other sites.

Keywords: Ear; Esophagus; Open Heart Surgery; Pediatric; Rectus; Thermometry

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