believe sports drinks or apple
and cranberry juices are effective
options," says Dr. Nelson. "But
those drinks don't contain
enough of the complex carbohy-
drates needed to optimize
patients for surgery. The take-
home message is that drinks
must have at least 50 g of com-
plex carbohydrate in order to
elicit the proper response."
Letting patients drink clear flu-
ids before surgery seems like a
no-brainer, especially because
most anesthesia guidelines now
recommend that patients stop
eating solid foods 6 hours before
surgery, but be permitted to drink
clear fluids up until 2 hours
before procedures begin. (The
American Society of
Anesthesiologists issued those
directives in updated guidelines
published in 2017.) Still, involve
your anesthesia team, who under-
standably might still heed Dr.
Mendelson's warning, when
adding carbohydrate-rich drinks
to your pre-op protocols.
"Aspiration is their biggest fear
