ABSTRACT
Body temperature controlling in patient undergoing open heart surgery is very important and critical. In fact it is the base of work and by measuring temperature correctly, complications of hypothermia can be prevented. The overall purpose of this study was to determine and compare tympanic and nasopharyngeal temperatures in patient undergoing open heart surgery with hypothermia. This was a correlation study. The sample consisted of 60 patients undergoing open heart surgery with hypothermia. Body temperatures are measured in three sites - right ear, left ear and nasopharynx. Both of them were measured simultaneously before, during and after hypothermia. Tympanic temperatures were measured with an infrared thermometer and the nasopharyngeal temperatures were monitored by heart and lung machine, in fact it is a process in open heart surgery. This study showed that the mean of body temperatures are different in three sites. The difference between right and left ear wasn't significant, but the mean of nasopharyngeal temperature was significantly different with right and left ear. In order to determine the sensitivity of tympanic to changes of temperature, correlations between three sites - right ear, left ear and nasopharyngeal - are calculated. Temperatures at three sites had a high correlation [p= 0.01]. All sites are sensitive to changes of body temperatures and they can show core temperatures of body well. Therefore, when there are limitations for monitoring of body temperatures by nasopharyngeal route, the tympanic route can be a good replacement