Preoperative Carbohydrate Loading For Elective LUSCS
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Do preoperative carbohydrate drinks prevent preoperative catabolism in mothers undergoing elective caesarean section? A randomised controlled study.
IRAS ID
142224
Contact name
Juliana Sisk
Contact email
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 3 months, 1 days
Research summary
Patients requiring general anaesthetic for surgical procedures are asked to stop eating and drinking for several hours before the procedure. This is due to concerns that such patients are at risk of lung damage caused by stomach contents entering their lungs while they are asleep (aspiration of gastric contents).
However, fasting patients for long periods of time can lower their ability to heal well and slow their recovery from surgery. Fasting increases anxiety levels and leads to poor patient satisfaction with the care received.
Recent studies have showed that allowing patients to drink clear, easily absorbed sugar rich liquids (carbohydrate drinks) until two hours prior to their anaesthetic does not expose them to extra risks while preventing the deleterious effects of starvation.
Carbohydrate drinks with a few other measures aimed at facilitating early recovery after surgeries are collectively termed Enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS). The benefits and safety of enhanced recovery have been demonstrated in patients undergoing major bowel surgery and have been widely adopted. However, so far, no studies have been conducted to determine if these results apply to mothers undergoing planned caesarean sections. We hope to address this gap in the knowledge with our proposed study.
All mothers undergoing a planned caesarean section in the Princess Royal Maternity (PRM) will be invited to participate. Mothers will be divided into two groups. One group will receive standard care and the other group will receive a carbohydrate drink in addition to standard care. Information collected from the groups will be compared to evaluate the expected benefits and risks. The study will continue until the target sample size of 100 mothers in each of the two study groups is reached. With the current workload in the PRM, we hope to achieve this in 12 to 16 weeks.REC name
West of Scotland REC 4
REC reference
17/WS/0002
Date of REC Opinion
31 Mar 2017
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion