Should a bowel prep be considered when performing an ovarian cancer debulking and/or bowel resection?

This remains a controversial issue, although in recent years combined mechanical and antibiotic bowel preparation has once again been incorporated into clinical practice. This transition back to bowel preparation emerged following the publication by Morris et al. (Oral antibiotic bowel preparation significantly reduces surgical site infection rates and readmission rates in elective colorectal surgery. Ann Surg. 2015;261:1034–1040). In the analysis of included patients, incorporation of oral anti...

I never stopped using both a mechanical and antibiotic bowel prep. I think the willingness to use a bowel prep is directly related to the surgeons’ degree of “aggressiveness”. In other words, surgeons who are more willing to do a bowel resection are probably more likely to do a full bowel prep. On the other hand, a surgeon who is less likely to do a bowel resection would also be among the first to drop the prep. And I know some will take offense to this, but my experience is that it’s true: surg...