Toast and tea before elective surgery? A national survey on current practice

A more tolerant approach to preoperative fasting guidelines for healthy adu lts undergoing elective surgery was recently recommended by a task force ap pointed by the American Society of Anesthesiologists. This recommendation l iberalizes the intake of clear Liquids and specifically allows a light brea kfast (e.g., toast and tea or coffee) up to 6 h before elective surgery. We conducted a national sun ev to determine whether anesthesiologists giving anesthesia in an outpatient setting in the United States were currently fol lowing these recommendations, and whether institutional policy reflects the se new guidelines. The population consisted of the entire active membership of the Society for Ambulatory Anesthesia, providing an initial sample size of 623 subjects. Most conservatively calculated, we had a response rate of 59.6%. A total of 62% of the respondents said they have an institutional p olicy in place to allow dear liquids orally 2-3 h before the induction of a nesthesia. However, only 35% of the respondents said their institutions had a policy in place allowing a light breakfast 6 h before elective surgery. Nevertheless, only 3% of the responders said they would cancel the operatio n if a patient actually arrived at the facility after consuming a light bre akfast, such as toast and tea 6 h before elective surgery, 32% would delay surgery to later that day, and 65% would proceed without delay. We con elud ed that most anesthesiologists practicing outpatient anesthesia in the Unit ed States have already changed their practice pattern to conform to the rec ent recommendations of the American Society of Anesthesiologists task force on preoperative fasting time.