• Peter Van de Putte, Anneleen Herijgers, An Wallyn, Tom Bleeser, Lisa Van Dijck, Brecht Calle, Jenny Del Jesus Sanchez Fernandez, Fikriye Dogrul, and Ellen Hendrickx.
• Department of Anesthesiology, Imeldaziekenhuis, Imeldalaan 9, 2820, Bonheiden, Belgium. doktervdputte@gmail.com.
• Can J Anaesth. 2023 Aug 1; 70 (8): 130713141307-1314.

PurposeSurgical patients are asked to adhere to preoperative fasting guidelines to minimize gastric contents. Large fluid volumes or solid content can still be present as shown with gastric ultrasound. It has been suggested that additional rating of patients' satiety, measured as the feeling of hunger and thirst, could help clinicians to better judge emptying of the stomach.MethodsWe performed a prospective observational study in fasted elective surgical patients. The primary objective was to investigate the correlation between hunger measured on a 0-10 numeric rating scale and total gastric fluid volume measured with gastric ultrasonography. Secondary objectives included the correlation between 1) thirst and total gastric fluid volume and 2) hunger, thirst, and the Perlas grading scale score.ResultsWe included 515 patients. The exam was inconclusive in 14 individuals (2.7%). The Spearman correlation coefficient between gastric fluid volumes and hunger was 0.11 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.02 to 0.20) (P = 0.01). The correlation between gastric fluid volumes and thirst was 0.11 (95% CI, 0.02 to 0.20) (P = 0.02). Between antral grades and numeric rating scale, the correlation coefficient was 0.00 (95% CI, -0.09 to 0.09) (P = 1.00) for thirst and 0.00 (95% CI, -0.08 to 0.09) (P = 0.94) for hunger. Ten patients (2.0%) had solid content, 24 presented a grade 2 antrum (4.8%).ConclusionThis study suggests that the correlation between total gastric fluid volume and satiety sensation is very weak. Satiety did not reliably predict total gastric fluid volume.Study RegistrationClinicalTrials.gov (NCT04884373); registered 13 May 2021.© 2023. Canadian Anesthesiologists' Society.

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