Title

Knowledge, attitude and practice of pre-operative fasting in gastrointestinal surgery: Post-operative complications
 

Authors

Mohammed Mushthaque Muzammil¹, R.A. Siddiqui^2,* & Gourav Singh Shekhawat³

Affiliation

¹Department of Emergency Medicine, Dr Moopen’s Medical College, Wayanad, Kerala, India; ²Department of Pharmacology, NKP Salve Institute of Medical sciences & RC and LMH, Nagpur, India; ³Department of Community Medicine, Rajasthan University of Health Science and Jai Durga College of Nursing, Rajasthan, India; *Corresponding author

Email

Mohammed Mushthaque Muzammil - E-mail: mushthaquemuzammil.7@gmail.com; Phone: +91 9539988262

R.A. Siddiqui - E-mail: riyaz19752008@gmail.com; Phone: +91 9539988262

Gourav Singh Shekhawat - E-mail: gouravshekhawat7773@gmail.com; Phone: +91 9785386797

Article Type

Research Article

Date

Received April 1, 2026; Revised April 30, 2026; Accepted April 30, 2026, Published April 30, 2026

Abstract

Although there are evidence-based guidelines for the recommended approach to pre-operative fasting, there is still an ongoing pattern of extended use of pre-operative fasting ("nil by mouth after midnight") in gastrointestinal surgeries which may result in increased levels of patient discomfort as well as post-operative complications. Therefore, it is of interest to evaluate patients' knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP), related to pre-operative fasting among 200 elective gastrointestinal surgical patients and to assess its association with post-operative outcomes. The average fasting duration was 10.8 ± 2.7 hours for solids and 8.2 ± 2.3 hours for liquids, which was significantly longer than the guideline recommendations and the patients had higher rates of nausea, dehydration and wound infections as evidenced by lower KAP scores (p < 0.05). Those patients who had a better understanding of pre-operative fasting as well as better practices of pre-operative fasting had shorter fasting periods and reduced complications after surgery. Thus, we show that a structured patient-centered approach for pre-operative fasting education and standardized means for communicating pre-operative fasting instructions lead to decreased periods of fasting and improved overall perioperative outcomes following gastrointestinal surgery.

Keywords

Pre-operative fasting, gastrointestinal surgery, patient compliance, perioperative care, post-operative outcomes, mixed method study

Citation

Muzammil et al. Bioinformation 22(4): 2235-2239 (2026)

Edited by

A Prashanth

ISSN

0973-2063

Publisher

Biomedical Informatics

License

This is an Open Access article which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. This is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License.