Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate preoperative fasting times of surgical patients.

Material-Methods: This descriptive study was carried out in general surgery departments of Ege University Faculty of Medicine Hospital and Odemis Government Hospital, between March 1 and July 1 2007. The sample of the study included 145 patients who had surgery under general anesthesia and volunteered to include the research. The data were collected by a 19 item questionnaire which developed by researchers. Patients' levels of hunger and thirst sensation score between 0 and 10 were asked to evaluate. Data collection was interviewed patients face to face. Data was analyzed frequency and percentage with SPSS for Windows 11.0.

Results: The mean ages of patients were 50.64±15.07, 73.1% woman, 40.7% of educated in primary school, 53.8% of the patients were at home the night before operation. Most of patients (96.6%) had information about nutrition before surgery and they told that they must fast after midnight (24:00) and this information is (40,7%) given by physician. It is found that, the patients who were included the research had not had solid food an average of 13.53 hours and liquid for 12.21 hours. It is indicated that 30.3% of patients felt hungry and 47.6% of felt thirsty before the operation.

Conclusion: According the result of this study, patients' preoperative fasting and fluid restriction times are longer than suggested. It is seen that, changes in preoperative fasting time is not reflected to practice.