<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>We report two cases of patients presenting for elective surgery, in whom significant gastric contents were identified by performing fortuitous ultrasound examination of their antral area. The first patient presented for a day-case surgery scheduled under regional anesthesia. With his consent, ultrasound examination of the antral area was by chance performed within the context of training for this technique, showing significant solid contents in the stomach. The patient admitted that he had not respected preoperative fasting. The second patient was scheduled for an elective ophthalmologic surgery. Ultrasound examination of the antrum showed that the antrum was dilated, with significant solid and liquid gastric contents. This case may be related to a strongly delayed gastric emptying. These two cases demonstrate that some elective patients may present with significant gastric contents exposing them to the risk of pulmonary aspiration in the case of general anesthesia.</p></abstract>

We report two cases of patients presenting for elective surgery, in whom significant gastric contents were identified by performing fortuitous ultrasound examination of their antral area. The first patient presented for a day-case surgery scheduled under regional anesthesia. With his consent, ultrasound examination of the antral area was by chance performed within the context of training for this technique, showing significant solid contents in the stomach. The patient admitted that he had not respected preoperative fasting. The second patient was scheduled for an elective ophthalmologic surgery. Ultrasound examination of the antrum showed that the antrum was dilated, with significant solid and liquid gastric contents. This case may be related to a strongly delayed gastric emptying. These two cases demonstrate that some elective patients may present with significant gastric contents exposing them to the risk of pulmonary aspiration in the case of general anesthesia.

Fortuitous diagnosis of “full stomach” made by using ultrasonographic examination of the antrum in two elective patients

Journal of Ultrasonography

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Public License.

We report two cases of patients presenting for elective surgery, in whom significant gastric contents were identified by performing fortuitous ultrasound...

Fortuitous diagnosis of “full stomach” made by using ultrasonographic examination of the antrum in two elective patients

Published Online: Sep 07, 2016

Page range: 317 - 321

Received: Mar 04, 2016

Accepted: Jun 14, 2016

DOI: https://doi.org/10.15557/jou.2016.0032

Keywords
pneumonia, aspiration, gastric content, anesthesiology, ultrasound

© 2016 Lionel Bouvet et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Public License.

Fortuitous diagnosis of “full stomach” made by using ultrasonographic examination of the antrum in two elective patients

Published Online: Sep 07, 2016

Page range: 317 - 321

Received: Mar 04, 2016

Accepted: Jun 14, 2016

DOI: https://doi.org/10.15557/jou.2016.0032

Keywordspneumonia, aspiration, gastric content, anesthesiology, ultrasound

© 2016 Lionel Bouvet et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Public License.

Keywords
pneumonia, aspiration, gastric content, anesthesiology, ultrasound