Mechanical and oral antibiotic bowel preparation does not reduce surgical site infections and morbidity after elective colectomy, a European study suggests.

In the first randomised controlled trial on the topic, researchers from four hospitals in Finland randomised 396 patients assigned to either bowel preparation or no bowel preparation before elective colon resection.

Patients allocated to bowel preparation drank 2L of polyethylene glycol and 1L of clear fluid and took 2g each of neomycin and metronidazole on the day before surgery.

Surgical site infections were seen in 7% of patients in the preparation group and 11% of patients in the no-preparation group — a difference that was not statistically significant, the team reports in the Lancet.