Preoperative fasting in elderly orthopedic patients

Key message

The Norwegian Knowledge Centre for the Health Services was asked to systematically search for literature about the effect of different preoperative fasting regimes on complications and well-being in elderly orthopedic patients, with particular emphasis on the elderly with hip fractures.  These patients often have other illnesses, and many of them are undernourished.

We performed a systematic literature search that was built on a search strategy in a Cochrane systematic review from 2003 that deals with fasting before surgery. We searched for randomized controlled trials in the following databases: Ovid MEDLINE, Ovid EMBASE, Ovid British Nursing Index, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials and the National Institute for Health Research (formerly the National Research Register). The measures we wanted to investigate were various routines for fasting. The main outcomes were safety and patient satisfaction.  Our search was not limited in terms of population, or outcome measures.

We identified 1045 possible relevant titles and abstracts, but none of these met our inclusion criteria. 

This literature search shows that there is little research about the fasting regimes that are best suited for older orthopedic patients.