Introduction:

Gastric content aspiration represents the main cause of death related to anesthesia. Gastric ultrasound seems to be useful for studying gastric content, especially in situations where fasting conditions do not exist or are unknown.

Objetive:

To describe the utility of ultrasound for the evaluation of gastric content.

Methods:

A structured search was carried out with the descriptors: fasting; anesthesia; general anesthesia; ultrasounds, ultrasonography, stomach (MeSH), in the databases: Pubmed, Embase, SciELO and Cochrane Library.

Results:

29 articles were found with relevant information for the development of this review. Conclusions: Although gastric ultrasound seems to be a useful technique for the study of gastric content, the impact that this may have on the incidence of pneumonic aspiration is unknown, so more studies are needed to promote its routine use in clinical practice.

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