Premium
Preoperative anxiety and gastric fluid secretion in healthy children scheduled for outpatient surgery
Author(s) -
PATEL RAMESH I.,
HANNALLAH RAAFAT S.,
VERGHESE SUSAN T.
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
pediatric anesthesia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.704
H-Index - 82
eISSN - 1460-9592
pISSN - 1155-5645
DOI - 10.1111/j.1460-9592.1994.tb00395.x
Subject(s) - medicine , gastric fluid , anxiety , anesthesia , elective surgery , outpatient clinic , prospective cohort study , catheter , intubation , general anaesthesia , surgery , chemistry , chromatography , psychiatry
Summary A prospective study of otherwise healthy unpremedicated children scheduled for outpatient surgery was undertaken to determine the relationship between preoperative anxiety and gastric fluid volume and acidity in children. The anxiety level of the child, using a six point anxiety scale, was determined in the preoperative holding area 15–30 min before surgery. After induction of anaesthesia and tracheal intubation, a multi‐port large bore catheter was inserted orally to aspirate gastric contents. Gastric fluid volume was measured and its pH was determined by an Accumet® 915 pH meter. One hundred and fifty patients, between 2 and 10 years of age (mean 5.3 ± 3.0 yrs), weighing 11.2–69.0 kg (mean 22.3 ± 15.4) were studied. Gastric contents could only be aspirated in 101 out of 150 patients. Gastric fluid volume averaged 0.41 ± 0.31 ml·kg −1 in these 101 patients. The average pH was 1.54 ± 0.40. Thirty two patients (21%) had gastric fluid volume > 0.4 ml·kg −1 and pH <2.5. Neither the gastric volume nor the pH correlated with the preoperative anxiety scores. We conclude that in otherwise healthy children undergoing outpatient surgery, preinduction anxiety does not affect gastric volume and/or acidity.