Postoperative shivering: prevention or treatment?

Postoperative shivering is a well-known and very common side effect after surgery. Its main cause is the disruption of thermoregulatory control provoked by general and neuro-axial anesthesia: anesthetic drugs impair the autonomic response which usually preserves core body heat by vasoconstriction. The threshold temperature associated with the onset of vasoconstriction is variable and depending on gender, exercise, food intake, thyroid function and drugs; it is normally set around 36.5°C, while clinically evident shivering appears at approximately 35.9-36.0°C.