How do trauma surgeons deal with the fact that the patients they operate on probably haven’t fasted the night before given that trauma patients don’t know in advance they’ll be having surgery?

Question

I know that with elective surgeries, patients have to fast the night before to prevent vomiting when they go under anesthetic, but I was wondering how this concern is navigated in trauma or emergency surgeries in which patients definitely didn’t fast the night before? Do they just try to deal with the vomit or is there a special procedure to prevent vomiting from occurring?

In: 1727

Answer 1

It’s a risk thing. It’s a known risk that you can aspirate under general anaesthetic (food into lungs). Once the endotracheal tube is in, the risk to lungs is vastly reduced. But it can only go in after being put under, so there is a period where the risk to airway is higher. So if elective surgery is needed, you get them to fast before.

In emergency surgery, the risk of not doing the surgery vastly outweighs the risk of aspiration. You can put a tube down into the stomach and suck up what you can from the stomach but you’ll only get liquids.

It’s basically a balancing act