Has anyone ever heard of warming saline to cleanse the wound before providing wound care?

Pt. has severe peripheral vascular disease and family wants saline warmed prior to wound care. Need substantiating evidence either for or against this idea. I have been doing wound care of 2 years and i have never heard of this being done.

It's more about patient comfort, although there's supposed to be no clinical difference between the two. It kinda makes sense to introduce anything entering the body at body temperature to avoid shocking the system...but that's just me.

Here's the closest thing I could find (it's a study on cold vs. warm saline before spinal anesthesia in C-sections)

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query...

I have heard of it before. It's part of the art of nursing. There's no science behind it making any difference except that the "cool" saline may cause pain for the patient. If the warmer saline makes the patient, and their family, feel better... then go for it! It's just for comfort. Just like warming the enema before giving it. It makes no difference to the effectiveness, it just shows a little more thought and caring went into it.

I see a lot of information that says to rinse the wound with saline and re-dress. Actually, I never heard of this but hey, because I never heard about it doesn't make it false. Seems like it can't hurt and appears especially helpful with skin ulcers.

I do wound care also and done for a long time and never heard of it. But there can't be any harm as long as it not too hot. If can give comfort then do it. I much rather have something warm than cold pour on me.

I have never ordered it done on my patients. A warm solution would do no harm and make the family happy. I do use hot, wet compresses on diabetic ulcers and vascular ulcers not to clean, but as treatment.