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PEDIATRIC ANESTHESIA

Residual Gastric Fluid Volume and Chewing Gum Before Surgery

Renate C. Schoenfelder, MD^*, Chandra M. Ponnamma, MD^*, David Freyle, MD^*, Shu-Ming Wang, MD^*, and Zeev N. Kain, MD, MBA^*

*Center for the Advancement of Perioperative Health and the Departments of Anesthesiology, Pediatrics, and Child Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut

Address correspondence and reprint requests to Renate Schoenfelder, MD, Department of Anesthesiology, Yale University School of Medicine, 333 Cedar Street, New Haven, CT 06520-8051. Address e-mail to renate.schoenfelder{at}yale.edu.

In this study we sought to determine if chewing gum preoperatively increases gastric fluid volume (GFV) and changes gastric acidity. Children, 5–17 yr old, were randomized to one of three groups: a control group that was not given any gum, a group that was given sugarless bubble gum, and a group that was given sugared bubble gum. Patients in the two gum groups were instructed to chew their gum for a period of 30 min. After induction of anesthesia and tracheal intubation, the stomach was suctioned with a salem sump orogastric tube. We found that children who did not chew gum had significantly smaller GFV as compared with children who chewed sugared and sugarless gum (0.35 [0.2–0.5] mL/kg versus 0.88 [0.6–1.4] mL/kg versus 0.69 [0.4–1.6] mL/kg; P = 0.0001). Children who did not chew gum also had a significantly lower gastric fluid pH as compared with children chewing sugared and sugarless gum (geometric mean, 1.91 versus 2.25 versus 2.19; P = 0.007). We conclude that children who present for surgery while chewing gum have significantly larger GFV and higher pH.

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				Minerva BMJ, February 4, 2006; 332(7536): 312 - 312. [Full Text] [PDF]