What is it about?

This study aimed to determine the effect of hard candies on gastric content volume and pH in patients undergoing elective esophagogastroduodenoscopy and colonoscopy. Additionally, the study evaluated the difficulty of the procedure, complications, and satisfaction levels of the endoscopist and patient.

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Why is it important?

Our study explored the effects of hard-candy consumption during the preoperative period. We focused on hard candies in the form of lozenges rather than lollipops or candy sticks, which are less culturally familiar and less commercially available in Thailand. The patients were allowed to suck and chew the candies to imitate the actual behavior of candy ingestion. A significantly greater gastric content volume was observed in the candy group than in the control group. This finding might be because hard candy can stimulate saliva production,18 and candy chewing itself also encourages saliva production via the movement of the masticatory muscles.19 This increased saliva was naturally swallowed into the stomach by the patients during their wait in the preoperative holding area.

Perspectives

This study found that consuming hard candies did not affect the pH of gastric content and did not result in the accumulation of gastric content volume to the level of aspiration risk. Although not mentioned in the ASA guidelines for preoperative fasting, hard-candy consumption before elective EGD or other surgical procedures could be allowed. Scheduled operations should not be delayed or canceled if the patients have consumed hard candies during the nominal fasting period. Future directions would be to incorporate information regarding candy consumption into institutional and national guidelines for preoperative patient preparation.

Professor Somchai Amornyotin
Department of Anesthesiology, Faculty of Medicine Siriraj Hospital, Mahidol University

Read the Original

This page is a summary of: Hard-Candy Consumption Does Not Have an Effect on Volume and pH of Gastric Content in Patients Undergoing Elective Gastrointestinal Endoscopic Procedures: A Randomized Controlled Trial [Corrigendum], Therapeutics and Clinical Risk Management, January 2024, Taylor & Francis,
DOI: 10.2147/tcrm.s459875.
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