Mechanical bowel preparation before colorectal surgery?

Is mechanical bowel preparation of benefit to patients undergoing colorectal surgery? In today's Lancet, Caroline Contant and colleagues1 report a randomised trial on more than 1400 patients who underwent colorectal surgery with or without this procedure. These investigators found that the occurrence of clinically significant anastomotic leaks was similar in both groups of patients (4\ub78% vs 5\ub74%, with and without the procedure, respectively; effect difference 0\ub76%, 95% CI -1\ub77 to 2\ub77%). They concluded that mechanical bowel preparation should not be done before elective colorectal surgery