Pre-operative Fasting

General Guidelines:

Guidelines have recently changed for fasting. The Canadian Guidelines to the Practice of Anesthesia offer the most current and locally applicable guidelines: 1

  • Six hours after any meal containing solids
  • Six hours after ingestion of infant formula, non-human milk or expressed breast milk fortified with additions
  • Four hours after ingestion of breast milk
  • Two hours after ingestion of clear fluids for adults
  • One hour after ingestion of clear fluids for infants and children

References:

  1. Dobson G, Chau A, Denomme J, Fuda G, McDonnell C, McIntyre I, Milne AD, Milkovich R, Sparrow K, Wang Y, Young C. Guidelines to the Practice of Anesthesia: Revised Edition 2023. Can J Anaesth. 2023 Jan;70(1):16-55. doi: 10.1007/s12630-022-02368-0. Epub 2023 Jan 23. Erratum in: Can J Anaesth. 2023 Jul;70(7):1277. doi: 10.1007/s12630-023-02397-3. PMID: 36690905. ↩