00:01When we provide anaesthesia for patients, we are really concerned about making the anaesthesia and surgery as safe as we
00:08possibly can for them.
00:10So we've known for a long time, in fact for the last 180 years of anaesthesia, that if patients come
00:17to theatre with a stomach that's full of food or fluid,
00:20that can be very dangerous because what can happen is the food or fluid can come up into the mouth,
00:26that's called regurgitation,
00:28and that food or fluid can make its way down into the lungs, that's called aspiration.
00:33That can be really dangerous for patients.
00:36So every time we see a patient, we make an analysis of what we think the risk is that their
00:41stomach is full.
00:42And some patients have conditions that can have their stomach full and some people take medications that can mean their
00:49stomach is full,
00:50even though they've gone through the usual six-hour fast that we've asked them to do.
00:56Now the new thing on the horizon is some patients who take injectable drugs for weight loss management and diabetes,
01:03those drugs, as part of the way that they work, can in fact slow stomach emptying.
01:09So even though patients have undergone the usual fast that we've asked them to do,
01:14they might come to theatre with a stomach that's full and that can provide an additional risk for surgery and
01:21anaesthesia.
01:22Peptides are similar medications, they also can decrease gastric emptying.
01:30So patients might be on these medications, we might not know that they're on these medications,
01:35and patients can be understandably reluctant to let us know that they're on them,
01:39and they might come to theatre and have that full stomach even though they've had that six-hour fast.
01:45This is a pretty simple point!
01:46This is a pretty simple point of making the problem.
01:46This is a pretty simple point in time of making sure that they have to be done.
01:47You
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