Management of Preoperative Fasting - Research Paper Example

It is essential to consider the process from the different viewpoints, through its limitations and weaknesses on the basis of the clinical practices and state policies. Ethical considerations are to be accounted for also. In order to clarify all issues and to define the possible solutions for the existing problems in preoperative fasting, it is necessary to look through the principal notions of the preoperative fasting’ process, the guidelines of the royal college of nursing and other related researches, both supporting and denying the benefits of preoperative fasting.

The need for preoperative fasting has become evident with the understanding that the risk of pulmonary aspiration during the elective surgery may be significantly decreased or eliminated through the application of the preoperative fasting process. It has become a legal requirement for clinical practices and medical specialists. On the basis of the official statistics the cases of the pulmonary aspiration are very rare (about 1 in 10,000 patients), while the statistics also show that the majority of the cases in pulmonary aspiration take place in the emergency situation (traumas, for example) when the gastric emptying is delayed (Scarlett et al, 2002); the same statistics relate to the cases of emergency abdominal surgery, etc.

This statistics may become supporting evidence that preoperative fasting is an essential process in making the statistical morbidity in elective surgery minimal. The purpose of the existing fasting guidelines is to minimize the gastric contents before elective surgery; however, the question here arises: how to avoid unnecessary thirst and dehydration. This is the principal issue in the present research of preoperative fasting, and this issue needs to be addressed on the state level through the development of the new policies in fasting.

being expressed in plain words as ‘nothing by mouth after midnight’. However, the question here is – how it is possible to deal with preoperative fasting in children, especially when the surgery is scheduled in the afternoon.