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It’s Way Past Time to Stop Starving Patients Before Procedures
There is no reason for patients to skip breakfast for many procedures, especially ones involving the heart.
The above photograph doesn’t imply that hospitals starve their patients like some people out of a concentration camp. However, it does make the point that doctors should stop routinely asking patients not to eat for more than eight hours before minor procedures. The scientific evidence does not support this. I wrote about this five months ago here.
A new study suggests that making patients fast before a procedure in the cardiac cath lab makes no sense. The study looked at many other studies on the subject and is called a meta-analysis. The study was conducted at The Methodist Hospital in Houston (where I did my cardiology fellowship many years ago). It was published this month in JACC: Cardiovascular Interventions.
The findings “suggest that no fasting is a reasonable option and should be adopted in the majority of patients undergoing percutaneous cardiovascular procedures…they write, adding, however, that the approach “must be used with caution in patients with gastroenteritis, gastroparesis, and other diseases that increase the risk for nausea, vomiting, or aspiration.”
Forgetting that many patients, like myself, get hangry, and lack of food and fluids…
