Optimum clear liquid quantification using point of care gastric sonography after ingestion of measured volumes of clear liquid in adult patients posted for elective surgeries: A randomized controlled study

: High mortality and morbidity as a result of gastric content aspiration in the perioperative period is common. Therefore, nature and volume of gastric content can be obtained quantitatively and qualitatively by using ultrasonography. In this study we assessed the quantity and quality of gastric content after giving measured volumes of clear liquid orally depending on the body weight, 2 hours before anaesthesia. 132 patients were randomly assigned into four groups. Patients in group A received 0 mL kg-1, group B received 5 mL kg-1, group C received 8 mL kg-1 and group D received 10 mL kg-1 of clear liquid orally 2 hours prior to anaesthesia. Residual volume and content in the gastric antrum were observed by using ultrasonography after 2 hours in both supine and right lateral decubitus position. In our study, 100% of patients in group A, 97% of patients in group B, 81.8% of patients in group C and 69.7% of patients in group D revealed grade 0 antrum (empty stomach) with P value <0.05. Remaining patients showed grade 1 (empty only in supine) and grade 2 antrum (not empty in both supine and right lateral decubitus) with liquid as their main gastric content respectively. Majority of patients showed empty stomach after administration of clear fluids given orally upto 5 mL kg-1 2 hours prior to anaesthesia.