• L Bouvet, E Loubradou, F-P Desgranges, and D Chassard.
• Department of Anaesthesia and Intensive Care, Hospices Civils de Lyon, Femme Mère Enfant Hospital, 59, Boulevard Pinel, 69500 Bron, France.
• Br J Anaesth. 2017 Nov 1; 119 (5): 928-933.

BackgroundCurrent fasting guidelines allow oral intake of water up to 2 h before induction of anaesthesia. We assessed whether gum chewing affects gastric emptying of 250 ml water and residual gastric fluid volume measured 2 h after ingestion of water.MethodsThis prospective randomized observer-blind crossover trial was performed on 20 healthy volunteers who attended two separate study sessions: Control and Chewing gum (chlorophyll flavour, with 2.1 g carbohydrate). Each session started with an ultrasound measurement of the antral area, followed by drinking 250 ml water. Then, volunteers either chewed a sugared gum for 45 min (Chewing gum) or did not (Control). Serial measurements of the antral area were performed during 120 min, and the half-time to gastric emptying (t½), total gastric emptying time, and gastric fluid volume before ingestion of water and 120 min later were calculated.ResultsGastric emptying of water was not different between sessions; the mean (sdsd) t½ was 23 (10) min in the Control session and 21 (7) min in the Chewing gum session (P=0.52). There was no significant difference between sessions in gastric fluid volumes measured before ingestion of water and 120 min later.ConclusionsChewing gum does not affect gastric emptying of water and does not change gastric fluid volume measured 2 h after ingestion of water.Clinical Trial RegistrationNCT02673307.© The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the British Journal of Anaesthesia. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com

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