Combined Preoperative Mechanical Bowel Preparation With Oral Antibiotics Significantly Reduces Surgical Site Infection, Anastomotic Leak, and Ileus After Colorectal Surgery

Abstract Aims To prospectively evaluate the clinical efficacy of oral antibiotics as an adjunct to intravenous antibiotics and mechanical bowel preparation (MBP) in patients undergoing left sided colorectal surgery. Methods All participants aged 18 years or older and of any gender undergoing an elective open or laparoscopic left sided colorectal resection for benign or malignant colorectal pathologies were considered. The intervention of interest was oral neomycin 1g every 4 hours combined with oral metronidazole 400mg every 8 hours from 24 hours before the proposed surgery. Surgical site infections (SSIs), anastomotic leak, paralytic ileus, need for intervention, and mortality were the evaluated outcome parameters. Results Forty-two consecutive patients received oral antibiotics as an adjunct to intravenous antibiotics and MBP before left sided colorectal surgery. The mean age was 58.8 ± 11.5. There were 23 males (54.8%) and 19 females (45.2%). Use of oral antibiotics was associated with SSI infection rate of 2.4% (1 patient). The rates of clinically significant and non-significant anastomotic leak were 0% and 2.9%, respectively. Moreover, postoperative ileus happened in 11.9% of patients. Furthermore, there was no mortality or need for re-intervention. Conclusions Use of oral antibiotics as an adjunct to intravenous antibiotics and MBP in patients undergoing left-sided colorectal surgery was associated with a surprisingly low rate of SSIs and no significant anastomotic leak. It is time to trust the best available evidence and incorporate the use of oral antibiotics as an adjunct to intravenous antibiotics and MBP in colorectal surgery protocols in the UK hospitals.

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Interventions to reduce the incidence of surgical site infection in colorectal resections: systematic review with multicomponent network meta-analysis (INTRISSI): study protocol

BMJ Open ◽

10.1136/bmjopen-2021-057226 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (11) ◽

pp. e057226

Author(s):

Juliane Friedrichs ◽

Svenja Seide ◽

Johannes Vey ◽

Samuel Zimmermann ◽

Julia Hardt ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Surgical Site Infection ◽

Antibiotic Prophylaxis ◽

Bowel Preparation ◽

Meta Analysis ◽

Mechanical Bowel Preparation ◽

Supervised Machine Learning ◽

Controlled Trials ◽

Site Infection ◽

Oral Antibiotics ◽

Colorectal Resections

ObjectiveTo assess the relative contribution of intravenous antibiotic prophylaxis, mechanical bowel preparation, oral antibiotic prophylaxis, and combinations thereof towards the reduction of surgical site infection (SSI) incidence in elective colorectal resections.Methods and analysisA systematic search of randomised controlled trials comparing interventions to reduce SSI incidence will be conducted with predefined search terms in the following databases: MEDLINE, LILACS, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) and the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (CDSR). Additionally, several online databases will be searched for ongoing trials, and conference proceedings and reference lists of retrieved articles will be hand searched. The title–abstract screening will be partly performed by means of a semiautomated supervised machine learning approach, which will be trained on a subset of the identified titles and abstracts identified through traditional screening methods.The primary analysis will be a multicomponent network meta-analysis, as we expect to identify studies that investigate combinations of interventions (eg, mechanical bowel preparation combined with oral antibiotics) as well as studies that focus on individual components (mechanical bowel preparation or oral antibiotics). By means of a multicomponent network meta-analysis, we aim at estimating the effects of the separate components along the effects of the observed combinations. To account for between-trial heterogeneity, a random-effect approach will be combined with inverse variance weighting for estimation of the treatment effects. Associated 95% CIs will be calculated as well as the ranking for each component in the network using P scores. Results will be visualised by network graphics and forest plots of the overall pairwise effect estimates. Comparison-adjusted funnel plots will be used to assess publication bias.Ethics and disseminationEthical approval by the Ethical Committee of the Medical Faculty of the Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg (ID of approval: 2021–148). Results shall be disseminated directly to decision-makers (eg, surgeons, gastroenterologists, wound care specialists) by means of publication in peer-reviewed journals, presentation at conferences and through the media (eg, radio, TV, etc).PROSPERO registration numberCRD42021267322.

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