Unintended Perioperative Hypothermia and Surgical Site Infection in Children.

Introduction: Unintended perioperative hypothermia is associated with surgical site infection (SSI) in adults, prompting exhaustive efforts to maintain perioperative normothermia. Although these efforts are also made for pediatric patients, the association between hypothermia and SSI has not been demonstrated in children. We sought to determine whether perioperative hypothermia and other risk factors and clinical outcomes are associated with SSI in the pediatric population.