ULTRASONOGRAPHIC ESTIMATION OF GASTRIC CONTENT AND VOLUME IN PREOPERATIVE FASTING PATIENTS POSTED FOR ELECTIVE SURGERY: A PROSPECTIVE OBSERVATIONAL STUDY

Perioperative aspiration of gastric contents is a serious complication of anaesthesia and is associated with high morbidity and mortality.

It can result in severe pneumonia requiring mechanical ventilator support in up to one-third of patients with a mortality of 5%, representing up to 9% of all anaesthesia-related deaths.

The severity of the resulting respiratory compromise is thought to be related to both the volume and nature of the aspirate, with particulate matter carrying the highest risk.

Preoperative fasting guidelines help limit the risk in elective patients with minimal co-morbidities. However, fasting intervals are not applicable or reliable in urgent or emergency surgeries or for patients with

certain medical conditions.

In anaesthesiology and acute care medicine, there is a growing interest in bedside evaluation of gastric ‘fullness’ to assess pulmonary aspiration risk. With the advent of portable ultrasound machines, performing

point-of-care ultrasound has become relatively easy and feasible. Gastric ultrasound examination is finding a place as a point-of-care tool for aspiration risk assessment.

It can identify the nature of the gastric content, i.e., empty, clear fluid and solid and when clear fluid is present, its volume can be quantified.

With this we aim to determine the efficiency of Ultrasound in determining the gastric volume and content is performed and to correlate with the fasting guidelines.