Ultrasonographic Assessment of Metoclopramide Administration Effectiveness in Accelerating Gastric Emptying Before Urgent Surgery in Patients with Insufficient NPO Time

BACKGROUND: Aspiration is one of the important complications of general anesthesia, although infrequent as well as accompanying high morbidity and mortality. The volume of gastric content is considered as a risk factor in this regard. Therefore, it is normally mostly recommend to consider proper fasting time before induction of general anesthesia. OBJECTIVES: This study was conducted to assess the effect of metoclopramide on reducing gastric contents in patients with incomplete fasting before induction of general anesthesia. METHODS: This quasi-experimental study was conducted on patients with urgent surgical indications with incomplete NPO time. Every other patient received metoclopramide or placebo. Patients in the intervention group received 10 mg (2 ml) of intravenous metoclopramide, and patients in the control group received 2 ml of distilled water as a placebo. Patients in both groups underwent ultrasonography before starting surgery by an expert radiologist to calculate gastric antral grade (GAG) and cross-sectional antral area (CSA). These measurements were then taken for the second time 30 minutes after intervention, before starting the surgery. The values were compared statistically. RESULTS: The data of 60 patients were analyzed, of which 30 were in each group. The mean age, body mass index, type of the last consumed food (solid or fluid), NPO time in the two groups were not significantly different (P value > 0.05). The number of patients in the metoclopramide group with higher GAG (P value = 0.001) and the mean CSA (P value = 0.004) before the intervention was more than the control group. The GAG and mean CSA after intervention were not significantly different between the two groups; but the mean difference of decrease in CSA in the metoclopramide group was more than the control group (4.3 vs. 0.99; P value = 0.001), and changes of GAG after intervention to lower levels in the metoclopramide group was more than the control group (P value < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: In the current study in which ultrasonographic indexes, including GAG and CSA, were assessed as a suboptimal gastric emptying test method, it was found that metoclopramide could accelerate gastric emptying compared to placebo in patients with incomplete fasting before induction of general anesthesia.