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

Rapid Sequence Intubation and a whole lot of hope. The biggest risk with vomiting is aspiration pneumonia. But in a trauma surgery situation, that risk is dwarfed by the risk of death. We can treat aspiration PNA. We cannot treat death. It’s all about the risk/benefit analysis. Source – personal experience as an RN in the operating room and endoscopy department (both procedural care with anesthesia)