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Previous investigators have proposed that postoperative shivering may be poorly tolerated by patients with cardiopulmonary disease because of the associated significant increase in total-body oxygen consumption. However, the often-quoted 300-400% increase in oxygen consumption with shivering was derived from relatively few studies performed in a small number of younger persons specifically selected on the basis of clinically recognizable shivering. We hypothesized that the average elderly postoperative patient has a shivering response that is associated with a relatively small increase in total-body oxygen consumption.

One hundred eleven elderly patients (age > 60 yr) undergoing surgery were studied to assess the determinants of shivering and total-body oxygen consumption in the early postoperative period. Anesthetic technique, postoperative …