Aspiration Risk Assessment by Gastric Ultrasound in eMErgency Surgery and ANesThetic Decision-making: The ARGUMENT Study

Pulmonary aspiration of gastric contents is a serious patient safety problem accounting for 50% of anesthesia-related mortality. The risk is higher in patients undergoing emergency surgery as the gastric content is uncertain which poses a challenge to anesthetic decision-making. Standard clinical assessment to identify at-risk patients primarily relies on preoperative fasting guidelines and is not adequate for patients undergoing emergency surgeries. Point-of-care gastric ultrasound (GUS) has emerged as an accurate bedside tool providing information regarding the type and volume of gastric contents. When GUS was added to standard clinical assessment, anesthetic management plan changed in 71% of adult elective and 37% of pediatric emergency surgical procedures. Such data is lacking in adult patients undergoing emergency surgeries. The investigators propose a multicentre mixed-method study to evaluate the impact of GUS on aspiration risk assessment and subsequent Anesthetic Plan before emergency surgeries. The evidence from this study will improve patient safety by accurately identifying patients at risk of aspiration and tailoring anesthetic techniques and airway management to prevent pulmonary aspiration in patients undergoing emergency surgeries.

The proposed trial design is a mixed-method, multicenter study that includes a randomized controlled trial (RCT) and a qualitative assessment component. The RCT will evaluate the impact of adding GUS to the standard clinical assessment on the incidence of changes in the anesthetic plan for adult patients undergoing emergency surgery. The qualitative assessment will gather attending anesthesiologists' opinions on the addition of GUS in an emergency surgical setting.