Every week I get patients who come in for their elective plastic surgery procedures in my NJ plastic surgery practice and complain about how hungry and thirsty they are.

The reason for not eating or drinking on the morning of surgery (or being kept NPO) is that any food or liquid in the stomach can be vomited during the start of anesthesia and if aspirated into the lungs can cause severe breathing problems.

The true amount of time needed to wait after eating or drinking is believed to be between 6-8 hours by most anesthesiologists. The patients in my practice are getting elective surgery and it makes sense to take every safety precaution possible.

I have had patients come in who directly disregard the instructions not to eat. They believe that this is an optional instruction and that coffee/milk and a small breakfast won’t matter. The truth is, it does make a difference, and the result of ignoring this instruction is usually postponement of surgery.

The goal of any surgery should be to optimize safety for plastic surgery patients and observing the restriction of not eating before elective surgery should be understood and respected.

Reviews are becoming more and more important for all different aspects of our lives. In the old days we relied on consumer reports, food critics, movie critics and the like to give us information on products or services. Now we have instant information at our fingertips about all types of services.

I value the reviews that patients write about me and about my practice. One site that we are associated with has a large number of frequent reviews of my NJ plastic surgery practice which I wanted to share.

Other sites such as yelp reviews, yahoo reviews, google places, insiderpages are always growing.

I value the information posted and read it carefully. If you have concerns I wish you would contact me directly at esorokin@delawarevalleyplasticsurgery.com so we can address any issue. If you have the time to post a review, I certainly appreciate it!