Chewing gum for one hour does not change gastric fluid volume.

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• Jose A Valencia, Javier Cubillos, David Romero, William Amaya, Juliana Moreno, Leopoldo Ferrer, Stefanie Pabón, and Anahi Perlas.
• Department of Anesthesiology, Hospital Universitario Fundación Santa Fe de Bogotá, Carrera 7 No. 117-15. Bogotá, Colombia. Electronic address: javalbar@hotmail.com.
• J Clin Anesth. 2019 Sep 1; 56: 100-105.

Study ObjectivePerioperative fasting guidelines differ in their approaches to chewing gum in the preoperative period. Current recommendations range from canceling the surgery to proceeding with it. Given this lack of consensus, we performed gastric ultrasound assessments in healthy volunteers before and after a standardized period of chewing gum. The objective of our study was to determine if chewing gum for 1 h change the gastric volume.DesignObservational prospective analytical study.SettingBedside gastric ultrasound.PatientsFollowing institutional Review Board approval, 55 healthy (American Society of Anesthesiologists class I to II) fasted (non-surgical research) volunteers provided written informed consent to participate in the study. Morbid obesity, renal failure, diabetes mellitus, pregnancy and previous upper abdominal surgery were exclusion criteria.InterventionsVolunteers chewed gum for 1 h between the first and second assessment.MeasurementsFour gastric ultrasound assessments were performed, the first one at baseline and then hourly thereafter.Main ResultsFifty-five healthy volunteers were studied. The proportion of subjects who presented a completely empty stomach (Grade 0 antrum) was similar at baseline and after 1 h of gum-chewing [81% vs. 84%, p = 0.19, CI 95% (-12%, 16%)]. Among those subjects who had visible fluid at baseline, the volume remained unchanged throughout the study period.ConclusionsOne hour of gum-chewing had no significant effect on the gastric fluid volume of healthy volunteers, suggesting that it may be safe for healthy subjects to chew gum prior to elective surgery.Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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