The impact of oral antimicrobial prophylaxis on the surgical site infection and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infection after elective colorectal surgery was evaluated by a prospective randomized single-blind study. The patients were randomly allocated to receive either mechanical bowel cleansing with polyethylene glycol alone (group 1) or mechanical cleansing plus oral antimicrobial prophylaxis with kanamycin and erythromycin for 2 days prior to surgery (group 2). In both groups, cefotiam was intravenously given twice a day for 3 days. A total of 143 patients (71 for group 1 and 72 for group 2) were eligible. The incidence of a surgical site infection was 23.9% in group 1 and 11.1% in group 2 (P = 0.04). The incidence of MRSA infection including at surgical and remote sites was 11.1% in group 1 and 5.6% in group 2 (P = 0.19). A multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that the risk of surgical site infection was influenced by the choice of the chemical bowel preparation (P = 0.03) and blood loss (P < 0.01), while an MRSA infection was predominantly influenced by blood loss (P < 0.01) followed by coexisting underlying diseases (P = 0.07). These results suggest that preoperative antimicrobial prophylaxis would be useful for reducing the incidence of a surgical site infection without increasing the risk of an MRSA infection following elective colorectal surgery.

A minilaparotomy approach is a feasible, minimally invasive, and attractive alternative to conventional laparotomy for selected patients with colonic cancer.

Radical surgery for fulminant amoebic colitis leads to extremely high mortality; however, resective surgery is mandatory if a patient develops massive fecal peritonitis. We herein report an extremely rare case of fulminant amoebic colitis with multiple perforations, which was successfully treated by staged surgical procedures. A 48-year-old man who had been treated with predonisolone under a diagnosis of ulcerative colitis was admitted. Biopsy specimens from the colonic mucosa revealed Entamoeba histolytica. On the day of diagnosis, he developed severe abdominal pain and underwent emergency laparoptomy, showing total colonic gangrene with multiple perforations associated with massive fecal peritonitis. Subtotal colectomy, mucous fistula of the rectosigmoid, and ileostomy were performed. He recovered well although disseminated intravascular coagulopathy developed postoperatively. As the middle and upper part of rectum was found to be severely stenotic 4 months after surgery, we performed proctectomy, ileal pouch anal canal anastomosis, and diverting ileostomy, which was reversed 6 months later. The patient has been well with satisfactory anal function 37 months after the initial surgery. This case suggests that (1). early and accurate diagnosis of amoebiasis is important to avoid surgical intervention, and (2). staged surgery including total colectomy should be considered as one of the treatment choices even in patients with total necrotizing amoebic colitis.