Tempo de jejum perioperatório e complicações em cirurgias eletivas de ressecção de tumores no trato gastrintestinal

Abstract

Patients with elective surgery in the gastrointestinal tract have well-defined pre-operative and postoperative fasting protocols. However, the implementation of these protocols is still slow in the hospital routine, subjecting patients to a prolonged period of food restriction, which may exacerbate the organic response to stress and increase susceptibility to postoperative complications. This study aimed to identify the fasting time in patients submitted to gastrointestinal tract cancer surgery and to verify if there was any difference in relation to the fasting time between patients who presented or not postoperative complications. There were 77 patients included in the study. The median preoperative and postoperative fasting times were 16 (12.5 - 18.5) and 40 (19.5 - 47.0) hours, respectively. The fasting time found in the study extrapolates current recommendations to patients undergoing surgery. Of the 77 patients, only 26 (33.8%) started the diet in the first 24 hours after surgery and only 33.8% of the patients met the hospital's recommendation to start fasting at 10:00 pm the day before surgery. Adherence to the protocol fasting time depends on both healthcare professionals and patients on accepting the proposed fasting time. No difference was found in the mean preoperative and postoperative fasting time in patients with and without complications (p = 0.366 and p = 0.942, respectively). It was observed in the present study that the patients were submitted to a preoperative and postoperative fasting time that did not meet national and international recommendations.