All issues > Volume 41(1); 1998

Original Article

J Korean Pediatr Soc. 1998;41(1):26-32. Published online January 15, 1998.

The Effect of Bundling on Neonatal Body Temperature

Ja Kyoung JK Lee¹, Eun Jung EJ Kim¹, Hea Kyoung HK Lee¹, Young Hee YH Yu¹, Hyun Sook HS Lee¹

¹Department of Pediatrics, Korea Veterans Hospital, Seoul, Korea

Correspondence Hyun Sook HS Lee ,Email: 1

Abstract

Purpose
: Fever in newborn might be an indicator of serious bacterial infection. Differentiating environmental from disease-related temperature elevations in newborn is clinically important, because neonate with environment-related temperature elevation might be subjected to an unnecessary work-up to detect occult disease. But there are exists no consistent conclusions about environmental effect in previous literatures. We prospectively evaluated the effect of bundling on body temperature.
Methods
: Twenty-five well, full-term newborns within 1 week old were assigned to the control group(one blanket) or to the study group(five blankets and hat). Rectal and axillary temperatures and arousal states were measured at 15-minute interval for 2 hours.
Results
: There were 13 control and 12 study newborns. The mean axillary temperature of contol group increased by 0.21℃; mean rectal temperature increased by 0.23℃. The mean axillary temperature of study group increased by 0.63℃; mean rectal temperature increased by 0.56℃. Comparing study newborns to controls, there were significant rises in both axillary temperature and rectal temperature. One newborn of the study group reached 38.3℃ in rectal temperature.
Conclusion
: Bundling can cause significant elevations in axillary and rectal temperature in newborn within 1 week old. Therefore, physicians treating neonates with elevated temperature should question whether to use bundling to differentiate endogenous from exogenous causes.

Keywords :Bundling, Fever, Hyperthermia, Newborn