Preoperative Oral Carbohydrate-Containing Fluid Versus Plain Water in Elective Cesarean Deliveries: A Randomized Clinical Trial.

Purpose: Traditional prolonged fasting regimens have recently been replaced with guidelines to take carbohydrate-rich clear fluids until 2 hours before surgery. With this study, we wanted to study if the addition of carbohydrates to preoperative oral fluids confers any advantage.

Design: Randomized clinical trial.

Methods: The study was conducted at a single center in North India among singleton pregnancies at term, scheduled for elective cesarean section under subarachnoid block. Participants were randomized into 2 groups of 50 participants each. The "Carbohydrate group" received 400 mL of fluid containing 50 g of glucose, while the "plain water" group received 400 mL of water 2 to 4 hours before surgery. A visual analog scale was used to assess hunger, thirst, anxiety, fatigue, and nausea before surgery. Intraoperative mean arterial pressure, hypotension, nausea, and vomiting were noted. On the first postoperative day, recovery from anesthesia was assessed using the Quality of recovery from anesthesia- 40 (QoR-40) questionnaire. Blood sugar levels were compared on the first postoperative day and in cord blood.

Findings: Preoperative visual analog scale scores for hunger, thirst, anxiety, nausea, and fatigue were similar in both groups. The occurrence of hypotension (P = .688) and phenylephrine use (P = .39), recovery from anesthesia (P = .92), cord blood sugar levels (P = .24), and postoperative blood sugar levels were also not significantly different in both groups (P = .81).

Conclusion: This study did not find any significant advantage of preoperative carbohydrate-containing fluid over preoperative plain water in women undergoing elective cesarean delivery under Subarachnoid block.