Mechanical bowel preparation does not affect the intramucosal bacterial colony count.

Bärbel Jung, Peter Matthiessen, Kenneth Smedh, Erik Nilsson, Ulrika Ransjö, Lars Påhlman

Department of Surgery and Perioperative Sciences, University of Umeå, Umeå, Sweden. barbel.jung@hsf.gotland.se

International journal of colorectal disease 2010 Apr

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The aim of this study was to determine if mechanical bowel preparation (MBP) influences the intramucosal bacterial colony count in the colon. Macroscopically normal colon mucosa was collected from 37 patients (20 with and 17 without MBP) who were undergoing elective colorectal surgery at three hospitals. The biopsies were processed and cultured in the same laboratory. Colony counts of the common pathogens Escherichia coli and Bacteroides as well as of total bacteria were conducted. The study groups were comparable with regard to age, gender, antibiotics use, diagnosis and type of resection. MBP did not influence the median colony count of E. coli, Bacteroides or total bacteria in our study. MBP did not affect the intramucosal bacterial count in this study. Further studies are suggested to confirm these findings.

Citation

Bärbel Jung, Peter Matthiessen, Kenneth Smedh, Erik Nilsson, Ulrika Ransjö, Lars Påhlman. Mechanical bowel preparation does not affect the intramucosal bacterial colony count. International journal of colorectal disease. 2010 Apr;25(4):439-42