Effect of preoperative fasting in children and adults.

This study was carried out to determine the effect of blood sugar level in patients undergoing different operative procedures. Significant fall in blood sugar level has been found in children below the age of 3 years when they were kept fasting for more than 6 hours. Similar study in adults did not show any appreciable fall in blood sugar level with overnight fasting of more than 12 hours. It is concluded that children below the age of 3 years undergoing any operative procedure should not be kept fasting for more than 4 hours.