Prolonged fasting in pediatric outpatients does not cause hypoglycemia.

Two hundred and thirty healthy children scheduled for receiving elective minor surgery were assigned into 4 different groups. Group I (small infant group) included 27 infants of age from 1 to 3 months (2.0 +/- 0.6 months), Group II (infant group) included 42 infants age from 3 to 12 months (7.4 +/- 2.8 months), Group III (pre-school children group) included 122 patients of age from 1 to 6 years (3.1 +/- 1.4 years). The remained 39 cases of age older than 6-years-old (8.0 +/- 1.5 years) were collected in group IV (old children group). All studied children were starved for at least 4, 6, or 8 hours in infants, pre-school children, and old children group, respectively, pre-operatively. The fasting time and fasting blood glucose levels of the 4 groups were 6.7 +/- 1.4 hours and 109.0 +/- 22.9 mg% in group I, 7.7 +/- 2.3 hours and 98.6 +/- 18.0 mg% in group II, 10.4 +/- 2.9 hours and 96.9 +/- 24.7 mg% in group III, and 12.6 +/- 2.6 hours and 95.7 +/- 20.5 mg% in group IV, respectively. No one in the 230 children had blood glucose less than 40 mg% even in 5 infants who were starved for 12 hours or more. Therefore, we concluded that preoperative starvation is well tolerated than the originally expected in the infants and children. The fasting time before anesthesia can be executed safely even though the operation schedule may not be right on time.