Perioperative medicine & outcomes
Impact of Shorter Preoperative Fluid Fasting on Patient Outcomes: A Safe Brain Initiative Retrospective Cohort Analysis
Authors' conclusion
Adherence to a short FFT could be increased over time; however, many patients still experienced an FFT that should be considered too long. Implementation of short FFT was linked to enhanced patient outcomes and more efficient healthcare resource utilization.
Study context
- Population
- Adults >18 years scheduled for surgery and able to communicate, 4 hospitals in Denmark and Turkey, Safe Brain Initiative care bundle database
- Participants
- 15,837 adults · 4 hospitals
- Exposure
- Short vs long preoperative fluid-fasting time
- Outcome
- FFT in hours and proportion of patients adherent to short FFT (2-4 hours) per month since SBI-CB initiation
Methodological detailsmulticentre, one-to-many patient matching
- Multicentre
- One-to-many patient matching
Main finding
As reported in the abstract
FFT and adherence to short FFT
- Fluid-fasting time (FFT), median (Q1-Q3)
- 5 (4-8) hours
- FFT, mean
- 6.3 hours
- Adherence to short FFT (2-4 hours)
- 40.3%
- Prolonged FFT ≥12 hours
- 11.9%
- Correlation of Safe Brain Initiative care bundle (SBI-CB) implementation month with adherence to short FFT
- r = 0.7, P < .001
Observational data: associations, not effects.
Secondary outcomes
| Outcome | Log odds ratio (95% CI) | P value | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Postoperative delirium (recovery room)Logistic regression | 0.7 (0.6–0.8) | P < 0.001 | |
| 0.512Log odds ratio (log scale) |
| Outcome | Median reduction (hours) | P value |
|---|---|---|
| Hospital LOS (matched patients)Matched patients | 18.0 | P < 0.001 |
Patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) (thirst, pain, nausea/vomiting, stress/anxiety, well-being)
- All measured PROMs improved significantly, most benefits postoperatively
Original publication
Impact of Shorter Preoperative Fluid Fasting on Patient Outcomes: A Safe Brain Initiative Retrospective Cohort Analysis. Anesth Analg. Published 24 November 2025. doi:10.
Composed by AI from the published abstract and checked against it. How Briefs are made →