LAUSR

We thank Dr Wagh et al.[1] for their comments on the guidelines “Perioperative fasting and feeding in adults, obstetric, paediatric, and bariatric population: Practice Guidelines from the Indian Society of Anaesthesiologists.” Our publication was based on evidence gathered from mainly four databases: Pubmed, Cochrane library, EMBASE, and Google Scholar. For formulating the guidelines, evidence of the highest quality (meta-analysis, randomised controlled trials (RCTs), observational trials) was classified as per the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation protocol. The research question on postoperative feeding yielded RCTs, and a meta-analysis was performed. Most of the studies published were comparative trials between early feeding group (6–8 h) and late feeding group (12–24 h). We found that return to bowel function and passage of flatus was earlier in the early feeding group. The incidence of ileus was the same in both the groups. Based on this meta-analysis, the recommendation was framed.[2]