Gastric Ultrasound for Gastric Content Evaluation

Abstract

Gastric content aspiration occurs once every 2000-3000 general anaesthetics. It is associated with a 20% incidence of in-hospital mortality. The incidence of pulmonary aspiration in patients undergoing surgery is at least three times more, up to 1 in 895 general anaesthetics. Pulmonary aspiration indeed is associated with half of our airway-related mortality linked with anaesthesia. The pulmonary aspiration causes significant morbidity including respiratory failure, acute lung injury, and multi-organ failure in adults. This review study aims to compare the stomach volume and contents in patients following standard fasting guidelines by Point of care gastric ultrasound measurements. Perioperative gastric ultrasound is a developing diagnostic modality that is modest, easy, non-invasive and efficient. It is very helpful to determine gastric contents in adult, obese, paediatric, and obstetric patients. It is a dependable and replicable tool that can be used for effective anaesthetic management. Gastric ultrasound is an irreplaceable procedure to complement the use of fasting guidelines, particularly when these guidelines have not been followed, or may not be relevant. Further series of research with metanalysis is required to understand the influence of point-of-care gastric ultrasound assessment on perioperative outcomes.