View clinical trials related to Fasting.
Filter by:In 2007, the frequency of so-called 'self-directed dying' in the Netherlands was investigated, that is, the voluntary cessation of eating and drinking or the taking of lethal self-collected medication. This research has not been repeated yet. Since 2007 there have been major developments regarding assisted and non-assisted dying, including the issue of a guideline by the KNMG and the endorsement by various political parties of a proposal for a new law on assistance in dying. There has also been much societal debate on euthanasia and assisted suicide as regulated by the Termination of Life on Request and Assisted Suicide (Review Procedures) Act. These developments may have had an influence on the frequency of self-directed dying. The primary objective of this cross-sectional questionnaire study with add-on qualitative interviews is to estimate how many people die each year in the Netherlands by either voluntarily stopping eating or drinking (VSED) or intentional intake of lethal medication attended by a confidant (ILMC). Secondary objectives include studying whether this number has changed since 2007; exploring possible explanations for changes in frequencies; and providing insight in the quality of dying of people who choose self-directed dying. To this end an online questionnaire will be sent out to a randomly drawn sample (n ≈ 37 500) from a large representative panel (NIPObase) of the Dutch adult population. A two-stage screening procedure will be used to check whether the experiences of the respondents represent a death VSED or by ILMC. The data will be analysed using quantitative software SPSS. From the respondents who indicate that they are willing to be interviewed, a sample will be taken from each group, 20 from VSED and 20 from ILMC. Interviews will be conducted by an experienced interviewer. The interviews are focused on better understanding people's choice for a self-directed death and on the perceived quality of the dying process for both methods. The interviews will be audio recorded and thematically analysed using qualitative software (N-Vivo).
The safety implications of prolonged fasting in young children prior to general anaesthesia are well described. Current UK guidance recommends a fasting time of 6 hours for formula milk prior to general anaesthesia. European guidance published in 2022 recommended a reduced fast of 4 hours for infants taking formula milk, albeit with a downgraded level 2B of evidence given the paucity of high quality research in this area. Although pulmonary aspiration of gastric contents under anaesthesia in children is a rare event, animal studies suggest that aspiration of particulate matter at volumes greater than 0.8 ml/kg gastric volume are associated with demonstrable lung injury and mortality. Although rate of gastric emptying of formula preparations has been extensively studied in neonatal intensive care settings for preterm babies using ultrasound, few studies have measured gastric volume directly in healthy term infants undergoing anaesthesia.
The immune system is made up of many types of immune cells, each of which play a specialized role in protecting against pathogens. T cells are a crucial part of the adaptive immune system, and receive signals from the body's metabolism which tell them whether they should become activated to respond to an infection or if they should stay in their resting state. In obesity, the body's metabolism shifts and these T cells become less effective at protecting against infection and instead start to increase inflammation which is involved in obesity-related health conditions. The investigators are conducting this study because the investigators are interested in understanding how fasting, which will alter the metabolic signals that T cells receive, might impact the types of T cells that are present and how they respond to activating signals. Additionally, the investigators are interested in understanding if these responses differ between T cells from individuals with obesity versus lean individuals.
Immunosenescence is the age-related decline of the immune system, involving a state of chronic inflammation and a decrease in the diversity/adaptability of the lymphocyte repertoire. The consequences of immunosenescence are multiple, including increased susceptibility to infections and poorer vaccine responses.
The purpose of this study is to determine whether eating solid food prior to undergoing a wide awake local-only no tourniquet (WALANT) procedure reduces anxiety in patients or has any effect on outcomes. Patients will be split randomly into two groups and told whether to eat or fast before their procedure. We will then compare levels of anxiety and nausea on the day of the procedure as well as satisfaction with the procedure and other outcome measures at follow-up visits. Our hypothesis is that patients who are instructed to eat before their WALANT procedure will have less anxiety, nausea, and overall higher satisfaction compared to those who are instructed to fast prior to their procedure.
The purpose of this study is to evaluate the safety of eating 6 hours after Extracorporeal Shock Wave Lithotripsy (ESWL). At present, ESWL and Endoscopic Retrograde Cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) are the routine ways to treat pancreatic duct stones. For large stones (diameter > 5mm) , ESWL often needs to be performed many times. In clinical practice, fasting for 24 hours after surgery is often used, but long-term fasting brings strong discomfort to patients. However, the consensus for initiation timing of oral nutrition has not yet been established after ESWL. Thus, we design this trial to evaluate the safety of early feeding based on 6 hours parameter instead of the consensus definition.
The investigators hypothesise that there is no increased risk of peri-procedural complications, accompanied by improved patient satisfaction among patients allowed to eat up to the point of coronary angiography/angioplasty compared to patients, kept nil by mouth. Therefore, the investigators aim to change the practice of fasting for all patients before elective catheterization procedures. Consented patients will be randomised in a 1:1 ratio to either fasting (standard hospital fasting policy) or non-fasting (allowed to eat and drink freely up to the point of transfer to the Catheter Laboratory). Primary End Point will composite peri-procedural nausea, vomiting, pre-procedural hypotension, pre-procedural hypoglycemia, intra-procedural emergency endotracheal intubation and aspiration pneumonia. This will be calculated as the number of patients experiencing at least one event. Secondary end-points will include patient satisfaction questionnaire and the individual outcomes assessed in the primary end point.
Many preclinical studies have demonstrated the beneficial effects of intermittent fasting (IF) in a wide range of neurological and cardiovascular diseases. This pilot study aims to investigate the safety and compliance as well as efficacy of one specific IF intervention called time-restricted feeding (TRF; 16 hours fasting daily) in patients with acute ischemic stroke (AIS).
Traditionally, patients are asked to fast prior to invasive cardiac procedures. There exists neither clear evidence nor guidance about the benefits of this. Hypothesis/Objective : To show that allowing unrestricted oral intake before a coronary interventional procedure is not inferior to imposing a pre-procedural fasting period, in terms of adverse events, in patients requiring coronary angiography or a planned or semi-urgent percutaneous coronary intervention. Method: The study is a prospective, monocentric, controlled, single-blind, randomized trial in two parallel arms. The investigating physician performing the interventional procedure and evaluating the safety judgment criteria will not be informed of the patient's randomization arm. In order to keep the blind, the medical and paramedical staff of the interventional cardiology room will not inquire about the fasting status of patients included in the study. Patients are randomized either to the pre-procedural fasting arm or to the absence of pre-procedural fasting. - No intervention: Pre-procedural fasting is defined by the absence of ingestion of fluids or solid food for at least 6 hours before the examination. - Experimental: free feeding and drinking until the procedure. Patients are followed for 4 hours after the end of the procedure at the hospital for adverse events (vagal discomfort, nausea, vomiting or hypoglycaemia). Then a follow-up will be done at day 7 after the procedure (by telephone for outpatients or discharged from the hospital and in the cardiology department for patients still hospitalized on D7) to look for the occurrence of acute renal failure or pneumonia
The current standard for cataract surgery is phacoemulsification with intraocular lens (IOL) implantation. In this procedure, topical anesthesia has become favoured over local anesthetic blocks due to potential serious complications resulting from retrobulbar or peribulbar anesthesia. Routinely, intravenous sedation is used to supplement the topical anesthesia. If patients are not fasted, there is the potential to reduce preoperative discomfort and anxiety, ultimately improving the satisfaction with the care received. An additional benefit is that liberal fasting policies allow for flexibility in the scheduling of cases, particularly for urgent or semi-urgent situations. Clinical practice guidelines for cataract surgery published by the Canadian Ophthalmological Society (COS) recommend that fasting is unnecessary if only topical anesthesia is used without intravenous (IV) opiates or sedation. In general, these suggestions are in agreement with guidelines from the United Kingdom's Royal College of Ophthalmologists, who note that "it is unnecessary to fast patients for local anesthetic cataract surgery." According to the CAS practice guidelines, the same fasting restrictions are applied when IV sedation or anesthesia with peripheral nerve blocks (e.g. retrobulbar or peribulbar blocks) are administered. At our centre at the Kensington Eye Institute (KEI) in Toronto, Canada, almost all cataract patients receive fentanyl and midazolam, with propofol given only in rare circumstances with close observation. This research project at the Kensington Eye Institute will consist of two phases, namely a prospective, consecutive observational analysis and a prospective time-interrupted study. In the first phase, an observational analysis will be conducted in which consecutive cataract surgery patients will be surveyed with a validated questionnaire to assess their satisfaction. Inclusion criteria will include any cataract patient scheduled for surgery who is willing and able to participate in the study, with fully informed consent provided. Previously published literature has evaluated the use of a patient satisfaction questionnaire regarding preoperative fasting, which includes items on hunger, thirst, hoarseness of voice, difficulty breathing, pain, agitation, anxiety, nausea, vomiting, shivering and problems with concentration. A Research Assistant will complete the questionnaire with all patients preoperatively at KEI, as well as a baseline demographic checklist that will include the patient's age, gender, laterality, surgeon, length of time fasted for solids and clear liquids, as well as the type and amount of solids and liquids. Secondary endpoints will be collected postoperatively and will include the incidence of aspiration, nausea and vomiting, as well as the rate of cancellations of surgeries directly related to issues with fasting guidelines. The first phase of the study will be used to conduct an appropriate sample size calculation, which will ensure that our second phase is not underpowered for the primary efficacy endpoint. In the second phase, a time-interrupted prospective study will be established with the following two arms: (1) experimental arm: patients will be encouraged by the Research Assistant to drink clear fluids right up to the 2 hour limit as specified in the latest ASA and CAS guidelines, with no intervention applied for solids, and (2): control arm: standard of care without any encouragement to drink clear fluids up to the 2 hour limit. Patients will be assigned to groups based on month, so that the first month of study execution will enroll all patients into the experimental arm, the second month will enroll only into the control arm, and that subsequent months will alternate enrollment in a similar method. Given the design, the study will be in accordance with the latest ASA and CAS preoperative fasting guidelines, and will not involve any use of financial or other methods of coercion to incentivize patients that are randomly assigned to the experimental arm. The encouragement process will only involve the Research Assistant asking and encouraging the patient to drink a standardized quantity of clear fluid (up to 400mL of water, coffee, tea, apple or cranberry juice and maximum of 2 teaspoons of sugar) up to the ASA and CAS mandated guideline of 2 hours preoperatively, with the patient making the final determination of whether to comply. Following the encouragement process, a demographics and satisfaction questionnaire will be administered to each patient preoperatively, as well as another satisfaction questionnaire administered following the surgery. Baseline demographics, primary and secondary endpoints will remain consistent with the first phase.