• Yan-Ling Zhang, Hui Li, Hua Zeng, Qiao Li, Li-Ping Qiu, and Ru-Ping Dai.
• Department of Anesthesiology, The Second Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, China.
• Paediatr Anaesth. 2020 May 1; 30 (5): 599-606.

BackgroundA recent consensus statement in Europe has suggested that the fasting time for clear liquid in children can be shortened to 1 hour before a surgery. However, the study to show that 1-hour fasting time for clear fluids is safe in young children is still lacking. This study aimed to investigate the gastric emptying time for carbohydrate-rich drink and regular 5% glucose solution in children aged 3-7 years.MethodsAfter overnight fasting, individuals were randomly assigned to ingest 5 mL kg-1 of either carbohydrate-rich drink or 5% glucose solution. One week later, the same subjects were asked to ingest the other one. Ultrasonography was performed to examine the gastric contents. Gastric antral cross-sectional area was measured, and the gastric fluid volume was calculated before and after fluid ingestion within 120 minutes. The primary outcome was the gastric emptying time for both the clear fluids calculated using the antral cross-sectional area and logarithms of gastric fluid volume. The degrees of thirst and hunger of two drinks were evaluated using a visual analogue scale as the secondary outcomes.ResultsData from 16 individuals were analyzed. In the glucose solution group, the antral cross-sectional area and logarithms of gastric fluid volume returned to baseline at 30 minutes after ingestion. However, in the carbohydrate-rich drink group, the median [interquartile range; range] antral cross-sectional area (3.69 [2.64-5.15; 1.83-8.93] cm2 vs 2.41 [2.10-2.96; 1.81-4.37] cm2 , P < .001) and mean (95% confidence interval) logarithms of gastric fluid volume (2.54 [2.30-2.79] mL vs 2.12 [1.94-2.30] mL, P = .048) were still higher than at 60 minutes and returned to the baseline values at 90 minutes after ingestion, respectively. The degree of thirst was lower in the glucose solution group than that in the carbohydrate-rich drink group.ConclusionsGastric emptying of carbohydrate-rich drink is slower than that of 5% glucose solution but the residual gastric fluid volume is low one hour after ingestion of 5 mL kg-1 of either fluid.© 2020 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

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