Laparoscopic colorectal resections with and without routine mechanical bowel preparation: A comparative study

• The evidence of omitting mechanical bowel preparation in laparoscopic colectomy is scarce in the literature.
• There is a concern that omission of mechanical bowel preparation in laparoscopic colectomy may affect surgical outcome adversely.
• This study showed that the clinical outcome, including operating time and postoperative complication rate was not adversely affected by omitting mechanical bowel preparation in laparoscopic colectomy.

BackgroundThe benefit of mechanical bowel preparation (MBP) in patients undergoing laparoscopic colorectal resections remains a question. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of omitting MBP on patients undergoing laparoscopic bowel resections.MethodsThe outcomes of patients who underwent elective colorectal resections for cancer of colon and upper rectum without MBP were compared to a retrospective cohort who had MBP.ResultsThere were 97 patients in the No-MBP group and 159 patients in the MBP group. Their mean age, operative risk, tumor size and stage of disease were similar. There were no significant differences in operative time and estimated blood loss. The anastomotic leakage rate was 1.0% in the No-MBP group and 0.6% in the MBP group, (p = 1.00). Wound infection rate were 4.1% and 3.8% in the No-MBP group and the MBP group respectively (p = 1.00). Overall surgical morbidity rate was 11.3% in the No-MBP group and 8.2% in the MBP group (p = 0.40). Conversion rates were 5.2% in the No-MBP group and 6.9% in the MBP group, (p = 0.57).ConclusionThe omission of mechanical bowel preparation does not increase surgical morbidities in patients undergoing laparoscopic bowel resections. It also has no effect on operating time and conversion rate.