Current practice of preoperative fasting: a nationwide survey in Japanese anesthesia-teaching hospitals.
OBJECTIVE
We conducted a nationwide survey to investigate the current practice of the preoperative fasting period in Japanese anesthesia-teaching hospitals. Acceptance of the clinical practice guideline published by the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) was also surveyed.


METHODS
A written type of questionnaire was mailed to 795 teaching hospitals.


RESULTS
The response rate of the questionnaires was 57%. Most (>90%) of the respondents had been applying a longer fasting period than the ASA-recommended minimum period specifically in adults; the median duration of fasting was 12-13 h for solids and 6-9 h for liquids. Children or infants were allowed a more liberalized fasting period, frequently being permitted an oral intake of clear fluids up to 3 h before anesthesia. The incidence of pulmonary aspiration was 1/12,500 general anesthesia cases, and application of the ASA guideline appeared not to affect the incidence. Japanese anesthesiologists were still reluctant to depart from their traditional long fasting periods, as most of them could find little benefit in reducing the fasting periods.


CONCLUSIONS
The long preoperative fasting period is still common practice in Japanese anesthesia-teaching hospitals. A national guideline for a preoperative fasting policy is worth exploring to change the current practice.
Shime
Nobuaki
N
Department of Anesthesiology, Postgraduate School of Medicine, Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine, 465 Kajii-cho, Kamigyo-ku, Kyoto, 602-8566, Japan.
Ono
Akira
A
Chihara
Eiichi
E
Tanaka
Yoshifumi
Y
D000758:Anesthesia / Q000592:standards*; D003625:Data Collection; D005215:Fasting; D005502:Food; D017408:Guidelines as Topic; D006784:Hospitals, Teaching / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D016134:Organizational Policy; D011015:Pneumonia, Aspiration / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control; D011300:Preoperative Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires