3.1. Fasting
Children’s preoperative fasting time for liquids differed significantly between groups(see Table 2). The children in the Anaesthetic Group(AG) were told to consume 2mL/kg of clear apple juice 2 hours prior to their scheduled surgical start time. Even with these instructions, the average time from apple juice to surgical start time was 3.5 hours.
Even with clear instructions given to both groups, the patients remained fasting for much longer than instructed. The hospital group had the longest time in between when they had their last fluid intake and when surgery actually started.