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What to do before coming to the hospital
    
We ask that you follow a few guidelines the night before and day of your procedure.  These guidelines are for your safety, and not following them could result in your case being cancelled or postponed.

1. Eating:  You may not eat anything after midnight before your procedure.  You may, however, drink clear liquids up to 2 hours before your scheduled arrival time at the hospital.  Clear liquids may be thought of as anything you can read a newspaper through.  Specifically, this does not include milk/dairy or juice with pulp.  A few examples are:

Clear Liquid ALLOWED:
Water
Black coffee
Apple juice
Sodas (Sprite, Coke, etc.)
Pedialyte

NOT ALLOWED:
Milk
Coffee with cream
Orange juice
Protein shakes/smoothies

2. Medication:  Most medications that you would normally take each morning should still be taken as scheduled the morning of your procedure.  This is especially important with cardiac/blood pressure medications, except as noted below. 

You should NOT take the following medications the morning of your procedure unless you are specifically told to do so: 

  • Any diuretics (fluid pills) this includes, but is not limited to: furosemide (Lasix), HCTZ (HydroDIURIL), triamterene (Dyrenium), torsemide (Demadex), spironolactone (Aldactone), acetazolamide (Diamoz)
  • Any Angiotensin Converting Enzyme Inhibitors (ACEIs) or Angiotensin Receptor Blockers (ARBs). Examples of these include, but are not limited to: ACEIs such as benazepril (Lotensin), captopril (Capoten), enalapril (Vasotec), fosinopril (Monopril), lisinopril (Prinivil, Zestril), moexipril, perindopril (Aceon), quinapril (Accupril), ramipril (Altace), trandopril (Mavik); and ARBs such as candesartan (Atacand), eprosartan (Teveten), irbesartan (Avapro), losartan (Cozaar), olmesartan (Benicar), telmisartan (Micardis)
  • Any oral diabetic medication this includes, but is not limited to:  pioglitazone (Actos), glimepiride (Amaryl), rosiglitazone (Avandia), chlorpropamide (Diabinese), glyburide (DiaBeta), meformin (Glucophage), glipizide (Glucotrol), miglitol (Glyset), tolbutamide (Orinase), repaglinide (Prandin), acarbose (Precose), nateglinide (Starlix), tolazamide (Tolinase) 
  • Any medication that has to be taken with food or milk