I know patients fast prior to surgery to prevent aspiration, pneumonia, and possible death but why 8+ hours before surgery but normal people can eat a couple hours before bed and not aspirate?
In: Biology
> …normal people can eat a couple hours before bed and not aspirate?
Normal people can eat *immediately* before bed and not aspirate their food.
The answer of course is that being anesthetized for surgery is not the same as sleeping. Despite both involving unconsciousness, a general anesthetic involves a level of sedation far beyond sleep which is why an anesthesiologist is required to administer anesthetics and monitor the patient during the procedure. One of the main goals of the anesthesiologist is to make sure the patient doesn’t die from the anesthetic such as if their breathing is reduced to the point of stopping, or their heart ceases to beat.
Those are not dangers typically present for people who are engaged in normal sleep. Notably people who are sleeping will generally wake up if they need to vomit, but sedated people will be unable to do so and aspirate their own vomit. Having less material in your stomach will reduce this risk. It is also a huge danger for people who get blackout drunk, except they don’t have professionals watching them at all times…
Because anesthesia stops your body’s natural reflexes. So if you throw up during surgery, there’s a risk of you choking on your own vomit because your body isn’t able to swallow it back down or cough it right up. 8+hrs is for them to be absolutely sure that food has been completely digested and your stomach is empty to negate this risk.
Most people with general anesthesia will have a breathing tube placed for the surgery. The process of placing a breathing tube requires both sedation and paralysis. A side effect of the paralytic medication is that it causes the muscles that usually keep food out of your esophagus (the lower esophageal sphincter) to relax as well, which while you are lying flat can cause stomach contents to reflux up into your airway during the intubation (breathing tube placement) attempt.
If you were opened in your sleep you would wake up immediately due to the intense pain.
Sedation for surgery is on a whole other level than just sleeping.
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