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Updated: Dec 25, 2025

Author Spotlight: Point-of-Care Ultrasound for Gastric Content Assessment and Risk Stratification in Perioperative Care
Published on: September 22, 2023
Prolonged preoperative fasting and prognosis in critically ill gastrointestinal surgery patients
Gang Zhou1, Fengxue Zhu1, Youzhong An2
1Department of Critical Care Medicine and Trauma Center, Peking University People's Hospital, Beijing, China.
Background And Objectives:
This study aimed to assess the influence of prolonged preoperative fasting on prognosis in elective surgery.
Methods And Study Design:
A retrospective, controlled study involving patients admitted to our surgical intensive care unit who underwent a gastrointestinal operation under general anesthesia. Patients were divided into regular preoperative fasting time (n=57) and prolonged preoperative fasting time (n=73) groups. Clinical data were collected including patients' demographics, intraoperative and postoperative operation time, volume of blood loss, intensive care unit stay, hospital stay, postoperative complications and other factors.
Results:
Patients in the regular preoperative fasting time group had less duration of mechanical ventilation support after surgery [245 (177, 450) min vs 315 (210, 812) min (p=0.021)] and the postoperative myocardial injuries (myocardial injury 2 cases vs 11 cases, p=0.038) and reoperation percentages (reoperation 0 cases vs 7 cases, p=0.044) were lower compared to the prolonged preoperative fasting time group. In addition, patients in the regular preoperative fasting time group presented with a significantly shorter period of postoperative fasting time [6.0 (5.0, 8.0) vs 8.0 (6.0, 13.0), p=0.005].
Conclusions:
Prolonged preoperative fasting time led to unfavorable outcomes after gastrointestinal operations. Thus, reducing preoperative fasting time is likely to accelerate postoperative recovery in gastrointestinal surgery patients.
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