PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Prolonged fasting for multiple orthopedic surgeries raises risk of malnutrition, leading to worse outcomes

2024-10-19
(Press-News.org) PHILADELPHIA — People who have multiple orthopedic surgeries during the same hospital stay are more likely to suffer malnutrition due to repeated or prolonged fasting, which can slow recovery and increase the risk of death, according to a study of more than 28 million patients presented at the ANESTHESIOLOGY® 2024 annual meeting.

Because food or liquid retained in the stomach increases the risk of regurgitation and aspiration in the airway and lungs during general anesthesia and deep sedation, most patients are directed to fast for at least eight hours before surgery. This is generally accomplished by not eating after midnight. It is also recommended that only clear liquids may be consumed up to two hours before the procedure. Patients having multiple surgeries while in the hospital, especially those clustered together over several days, are required to fast repeatedly or for cumulative prolonged periods. 

“Our research determined that repeated fasting in hospitalized patients having multiple orthopedic surgeries over days or weeks increases the risk for protein-calorie malnutrition, leading to longer hospital stays, slower recovery and higher health care costs,” said Ivie Izekor, B.S., lead author of the study and a fourth-year medical student at Texas A&M College of Medicine, Bryan. “While fasting is a crucial part of ensuring patients’ safety during surgery, our findings suggest modifications to clinical practice should be considered for patients who are at risk for malnourishment, such as those who are older than 65, have a chronic illness like diabetes or congestive heart failure or have limited access to adequate nutrition prior to surgery for socioeconomic reasons. Patients who have frequent surgeries or hospital stays and those with conditions that impair nutrition absorption also are likely at higher risk.”

For the study, researchers analyzed the National Inpatient Sample database between 2016 and 2019. They identified 28,475,485 patients who had orthopedic surgery of any type in the hospital, 1,853,360 (6.5%) of whom were diagnosed with malnutrition after admission. Patients were grouped based on the number of surgeries they had, all of which were performed during a single hospitalization. Patients who were diagnosed with malnutrition had an average of 2.31 surgeries, while those who were not malnourished had an average of 1.57 surgeries.

Researchers found malnourished patients:

were at least 15% more likely to die (and the risk increased with more surgeries), had higher hospital costs (an average of $98,000 vs. $48,000) and had longer hospital stays (an average of 9.07 days vs. 4.34 days). The cause of death in malnourished patients typically was related to infection, complications from poor wound healing or general frailty exacerbated by malnutrition. Researchers chose orthopedic surgeries because they do not directly involve the gastrointestinal system, which could complicate the findings. Patients who have multiple orthopedic surgeries include those with chronic joint conditions such as osteoarthritis, traumatic injuries that require several stages of repair and those needing revisions of initial surgeries.

To prevent malnutrition, researchers suggest that patients undergoing multiple surgeries receive personalized nutritional support during their hospital stay. This support may include dietary assessments by a dietitian, nutritional supplementation, and monitoring nutritional status to help facilitate faster recovery and reduce complications.

“The combined effects of repeated fasting and surgical stress can compromise nutritional status, regardless of the type of surgery, and it is likely our findings would hold true for patients undergoing multiple surgeries of any type,” said George Williams, M.D., FASA, FCCM, FCCP, senior author of the study and professor and vice chair of critical care medicine in the Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine at McGovern Medical School, UT Health, Houston. “However, it may be more challenging to assess the cause-and-effect relationship in gastrointestinal surgeries due to their direct impact on the digestive system.”

*** ANESTHESIOLOGY 2024 news releases may contain updated data that was not originally available at the time abstracts were submitted.

THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF ANESTHESIOLOGISTS

Founded in 1905, the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) is an educational, research and scientific society with more than 58,000 members organized to advance the medical practice of anesthesiology and secure its future. ASA is committed to ensuring anesthesiologists evaluate and supervise the medical care of all patients before, during and after surgery. ASA members also lead the care of critically ill patients in intensive care units, as well as treat pain in both acute and chronic settings.

For more information on the field of anesthesiology, visit the American Society of Anesthesiologists online at asahq.org. To learn more about how anesthesiologists help ensure patient safety, visit asahq.org/madeforthismoment. Join the ANESTHESIOLOGY® 2024 social conversation today. Like ASA on Facebook, follow ASALifeline on X and use the hashtag #ANES24.

# # #

END



ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

World medical association declaration of Helsinki: Ethical principles for medical research involving human participants

2024-10-19
About The Article: This article presents the 2024 revision of the World Medical Association’s Declaration of Helsinki, a set of principles to guide the ethical treatment of participants in medical research. Corresponding Author: World Medical Association (wma@wma.net). To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jama.2024.21972) Editor’s Note: Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions ...

Making the ethical oversight of all clinical trials fit for purpose

2024-10-19
About The Study: This article examines ethical oversight of clinical research in the U.S. and offers practical recommendations that are consistent with current regulations and that could help to make research oversight better fit for purpose for different types of studies. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Nancy E. Kass, ScD, email nkass@jhu.edu. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jama.2024.0269) Editor’s Note: Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, ...

Long-term low-dose antiviral treatment benefits patients with eye disease and pain from shingles

2024-10-19
Long-term, low-dose antiviral treatment reduces the risk for potentially vision-damaging bouts of inflammation and infection, as well as pain, which occur when shingles affects the eye, according to new research presented October 19 at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO) in Chicago. Shingles occurs when the varicella-zoster virus, which causes chickenpox in children, lies dormant for decades in nerve cells and then starts multiplying again for reasons unknown. It commonly affects people 50 and older, and ...

Long-term antiviral use is key to ocular shingles treatment

2024-10-19
Taking an antiviral medication for a year may prevent vision damage associated with shingles that affects the eye, according to new research led by faculty from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and the NYU Grossman School of Medicine at NYU Langone Health. “Up until now, there has been no proven long-term treatment for new, worsening, or repeated episodes of this disease, so the results of this study provide convincing evidence for using long-term, low-dose antiviral treatment,” said Bennie Jeng, MD, chair of Ophthalmology at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania ...

American Society of Anesthesiologists honors Mary Dale Peterson, M.D., MSHCA, FACHE, FASA, with its Distinguished Service Award

2024-10-19
PHILADELPHIA — The American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) today presented Mary Dale Peterson, M.D., MSHCA, FACHE, FASA, with its 2023 Distinguished Service Award in recognition of her enduring contributions to advancing patient-centered, physician-led health care. Her dedicated service to the specialty and ASA includes her leadership as ASA president during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. The award is the highest honor ASA bestows and is presented annually to a member who has transformed the specialty of anesthesiology. Nationally recognized for her role in guiding health plans and hospitals, Dr. Peterson currently serves ...

Innovation south facility opens in UT Research Park at Cherokee farm

Innovation south facility opens in UT Research Park at Cherokee farm
2024-10-18
The University of Tennessee, Knoxville’s Fibers and Composites Manufacturing Facility has a new home and IACMI – The Composites Institute has new headquarters with the dedication of Innovation South. Innovation South is an 85,000-square-foot multiuse facility in UT’s Research Park at Cherokee Farm, located just off Alcoa Highway across the Tennessee River from the flagship university’s main campus. Developed and owned by Partners Development, the building includes a 40,000-square-foot ...

Photonic computing harnesses electromagnetic waves

Photonic computing harnesses electromagnetic waves
2024-10-18
In the fields of physics, mathematics, and engineering, partial differential equations (PDEs) are essential for modeling various phenomena, from heat diffusion to particle motion and wave propagation. While some PDEs can be solved analytically, many require numerical methods, which can be time-consuming and computationally intensive. To address these challenges, scientists have been exploring alternative computing paradigms, including photonic computing. Photonic computing leverages light–matter interactions to perform ...

Loss of ‘nitrogen fixers’ threatens biodiversity, ecosystems

Loss of ‘nitrogen fixers’ threatens biodiversity, ecosystems
2024-10-18
STARKVILLE, Miss.—Mississippi State University is part of a European-American collaboration studying how human activities, like fertilizer use and polluting, are impacting nitrogen-fixing plants which are crucial for maintaining healthy ecosystems by adding nitrogen to the soil. MSU Assistant Professor Ryan A. Folk of the Department of Biological Sciences co-authored a study published today [Oct. 18] in Science Advances, showing that increased nitrogen deposition from human activity is reducing the diversity and evolutionary distinctiveness of nitrogen-fixing plants. Lead author Pablo Moreno García, ...

UH Energy Transition Institute launches radio show and online webinars focused on addressing grand challenges in energy

2024-10-18
HOUSTON, Oct. 18, 2024 –The University of Houston Energy Transition Institute is launching two educational series focused on exploring the unfolding energy transition and addressing the grand challenges in energy. Starting October 21, "Driving the Energy Transition," will air on Houston Public Media’s KUHF News 88.7 with new episodes launching every two weeks on Mondays. The following day, October 22, the Energy Transition Webinar series will begin, running biweekly on ...

UVA professor tackles graph mining challenges with new algorithm

UVA professor tackles graph mining challenges with new algorithm
2024-10-18
University of Virginia School of Engineering and Applied Science professor Nikolaos Sidiropoulos has introduced a breakthrough in graph mining with the development of a new computational algorithm.  Graph mining, a method of analyzing networks like social media connections or biological systems, helps researchers discover meaningful patterns in how different elements interact. The new algorithm addresses the long-standing challenge of finding tightly connected clusters, known as triangle-dense subgraphs, within large networks — a problem that is critical in fields such as fraud detection, computational biology and data ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Quantum battery device lasts much longer than previous demonstrations

Gamma knife stereotactic radiosurgery for brain metastases from ovarian cancer

Meet the “plastivore” caterpillars that grow fat from eating plastic

Study identifies postoperative delirium as preventable “acute brain failure” with major health and financial implications

Climate change linked to decline in nutritional quality of food

Abdominal fat linked to reduced strength and mobility in adults

Mount Sinai implements Own the Bone® program for fragility fracture patients

Is Earth inside a huge void? 'Sound of the Big Bang' hints at possible solution to Hubble tension

When stem cells feel the squeeze, they start building bone

Revealing Myanmar earthquake as a unique event comprising multiple sub-events, including boomerang-like reverse rupture propagation and supershear rupture

AI helps radiologists spot more lesions in mammograms

Efficient elastic tissues may hold the secrets to Olympic success

Does exercise really improve mental health?

Behind the ballistics of the “explosive” squirting cucumber

Researchers find compound that inhibits cutaneous HPVs

City of Hope Research Spotlight, April/May 2025

The gut microbiota in elderly patients with acute hepatitis E infection

The Three Gorges region of the Yangtze River hits record high temperatures in 2024

Experts urge evidence-based regulations of 7-OH, not restriction, as new science emerges showing safe use

Genes for surviving plague in prairie dogs

New research shows AI chatbots should not replace your therapist

Pusan National University researchers reveal middle-class families hit hardest by South Korea's cost-of-living crisis

Understanding how heat stress reshapes fat metabolism in chickens

Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Innovative Genomics Institute announce new Center for Pediatric CRISPR Cures

Innovative liquid biopsy test uses RNA to detect early-stage cancer

New quantum record: Transmon qubit coherence reaches millisecond threshold

How Germany’s 2021 floods could have been even worse

Study traces evolutionary origins of important enzyme complex

Tiny antibody has big impact on deadly viruses

Scientists find new way to control electricity at tiniest scale

[Press-News.org] Prolonged fasting for multiple orthopedic surgeries raises risk of malnutrition, leading to worse outcomes