Patients no longer have to fast more than six hours before surgery

Surgical patients in the Netherlands will no longer need to fast for extensive periods of time before an operation. A new guideline was recently introduced in which the fasting duration is much shorter, the Dutch Association for Anesthesiology announced following the publication of a news article in AD. Anesthesiologists see more than 1.2 million people every year for an operation or procedure, and the majority have to fast beforehand. In the new guideline, the association agreed that patients may eat up to six hours before the operation, and drink clear liquids such as water, lemonade, tea or black coffee up to two hours beforehand. "Various studies show that there is sufficient reason to shorten the fasting period before the operation," said Anton de Bruin, board member at the Dutch Association for Anesthesiology and an anesthesiologist and intensive care physician himself.