Lesser time of preoperative fasting and early postoperative feeding are safe?

INTRODUCTION: Fasting in the night before elective surgery has been established to prevent pulmonary complications, vomiting, regurgitation and aspiration of gastric contents. The year of 2005 was developed the project ACERTO. It consists in a multidisciplinary team that aims to recover the surgical patient by administering two our six hours before surgery, a carbohydrate-rich beverage (12.5% dextrinomaltose). The multidisciplinary team consists of anesthesiologists, surgeons, nutritionists, nurses and physiotherapists. METHODS: Literature review of preoperative fasting conducted during September and October of 2011 in Scielo and PubMed. CONCLUSION: Reducing the time of preoperative fasting with high carbohydrate solution until two hours before the operation as early feeding postoperatively, bring numerous benefits to the patient. The ACERTO project has shown good results and these new behaviors should be encouraged, thereby reducing the recovery time of the surgical patient.