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.
In: 2585
Emergency surgery will not be postponed because a patient has eaten. Nil-by-mouth is simply a strategy to reduce the risk of death during surgery but it isn’t always possible to wait, such as in an emergency. Food in your stomach is a risk because anaesthetic drugs can cause vomiting, and when someone is unconscious and lying on their back, this can easily be fatal. This is a risk however and not guaranteed to occur whether they have eaten or not. Having an empty stomach means if the patient does vomit, there’s no bits of food to get stuck in the airway. If the risk to the patient from not operating is higher then the risk of having stomach contents during anaesthesia, then they will of course operate and chose the option with least risk to the patient.
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