The frequency of infectious complications between mechanical bowel preparation and no preparation in elective colonic surgery.

Abstract

Mechanical bowel preparation (MBP) is the cleansing technique used clean up the large gut using oral cathartic agents like polyethylene glycol, sodium phosphate, sodium Pico sulfate, and magnesium citrate. Objectives: To compare the frequency of infectious complications between mechanical bowel preparation and no preparation in elective colonic surgery. Study Design: Randomized control trial. Setting: OPD or Indoor Surgical unit 5, DHQ Hospital, Faisalabad. Period: 1^st January 2017 to 31^st Dec 2018. Material & Methods: Patients diagnosed of malignant tumors of colon, appendix or cecum were included in study. Group A: mechanical bowel preparation done according to standard protocols, group B no mechanical bowel preparation was done. All patients were followed regularly for 2 weeks for presence or absence of surgical site infections and anastomotic leakage. Results: In this study, surgical site infection in both groups was compared, it shows that 18.59% (n=37) in Experimental group and 9.55% (n=19) in Control group had SSI while 81.41% (n=162) in Experimental group and 90.45% (n=180) in Control group bad no SSI, p - value was calculated as 0.009 showing a significant difference. Comparison of surgical anastomotic leakage in both groups was done, it shows that 2.51% (n=5) in Experimental group and 1.51% (n=3) in Control group had anastomotic leakage, p - value was calculated as 0.47 showing insignificant difference. Conclusion: We concluded that no mechanical bowel preparation is significantly better than mechanical bowel preparation in elective colonic surgery in terms of post-operative surgical site infection.