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N
o food or drink past midnight is slowly giving way to
carbo-loading up to 2 hours before surgery. Fasting
past midnight has been an unwritten Ordinance of the
OR for almost 75 years. We can trace its origins to an
obstetrician and cardiologist named Curtis Mendelson,
who in 1946 reported in an influential study that you could avoid aspi-
ration during general anesthesia for delivery by restricting oral intake
during labor.
Why Fast Past Midnight?
Patients who carbo-load before procedures can better handle
the physical stress of surgery and recover sooner.
Daniel Cook | Executive Editor
• TIME FOR CHANGE
Patients who fast during
the hours leading up to
surgery enter the OR in a
nutritionally replete state.
