Several Greater Washington hospitals are rethinking post-surgical care

If you’ve ever been through surgery, you know the rules. No eating or drinking anything in the 12 to 24 hours prior to the procedure, plenty of IV fluids and heavy narcotics followed by several days of bed rest.

But a growing number of U.S. hospitals have become convinced the evidence doesn’t support these long-followed protocols anymore.

“We’d been starving [patients], pumping them full of fluids,” said Dr. Martin Paul, chairman of surgery at Sibley Memorial Hospital in northwest D.C. “It’s amazing…