If you were in a car crash and had been eating all day, how is that different from a routine surgery where you weren’t allowed to eat for a certain amount of time before surgery?
Edit: based on some answers, perhaps I should clarify obviously I understand they have to perform surgery in an emergency. My question is more what do they do in an emergency when you haven’t fasted.
Thanks to those with real answers, I never knew about the special tube that could be used. That’s pretty cool.
I’m having surgery tomorrow and can’t eat so was just wondering how they handle food in the stomach during an emergency surgery situation.
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As many have said, it’s the risk of aspiration which is highest after induction if anaesthesia but before any tube gets inserted for airway protection. Ideally this gap is as short as possible.
The tern rapid sequence induction is used to describe a modified way that anaesthesia is induced and the patient intubated (tube into the windpipe). Usually we give you oxygen, then some drugs to make you “fall asleep” then often another drug that takes a couple of minutes to work that relaxes all uour muscles, including the ones around your throat. Whilst waiting for that last drug to work the team “bag” you, basically meaning they squeeze a bag full of oxygen which is connected to the mask around your nose and mouth, so the oxygen ideally goes into your lungs. Then the tube goes in when the last drug is working. Thing is, the bag squeezing may also make some oxygen fill up your stomach and if it’s full of acid/food/5 pints of lager that stuff can be aspirated into your lungs. This is really bad.
With a rapid sequence induction, and there are variations here, some people don’t do the bagging bit, or do it very gently so that reduces the aspiration risk. The medications given are done so immediately after one another (rather than waiting for the patient to asleep before giving the muscle relaxant, they are all given together) which is one reason why there is more chance of awareness during emergency surgery.
Suction should be immediately available and activated. The drugs chosen may be different. Some countries including the UK also often practice cricoid pressure which is where one person puts their fingers over the front of your throat and applies pressure, so that if any stomach contents do passively rise up, theoretically they get “trapped” in your gullet and don’t easily go down your windpipe. This is controversial however.
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