The other day Mike Blackburn, a South African anesthesiologist I follow on Twitter, posted this: "Colleague just fb’d about a surgeon who said, 'I know we should wait 6 h but she ate at 12 and looks like a fast digester.'"
This was
followed by a tweet from someone who calls him- or herself @LessIsMoreMed who
said, "funnier still is the lack of evidence re: pre-op fasting" and
included links to two references on the subject.
This
reminded me of an incident that occurred about three years ago. I was working
as a surgical hospitalist and had admitted a patient with acute cholecystitis
in the middle of the night. I put her on the add-on OR schedule for that day.
By and
by the patient was called for and when I got to the operating room holding area,
the anesthesiologist met me with a frown on his face and
told me the case would have to be postponed for a minimum of 6 hours.
I
asked why. He told me that when he interviewed the patient, he noticed
that the patient had a piece of hard candy in her mouth. He informed me that,
in terms of gastric secretion, the act of sucking on a piece of hard candy was
equivalent to having a eaten a full meal of solid food.
