Early postoperative administration of probiotics versus placebo in elderly patients undergoing elective colorectal surgery: a double-blind randomized controlled trial.

Background: Perioperative prophylactic antibiotic treatment significantly influences intestinal microflora, resulting in impaired bowel functioning in some patients, sometimes requiring further investigations. This may lead to a worse health-related quality of life (HRQoL). Probiotics administrated in the early post-operative period may help avoiding such nuisances in older people.

Complications and functional outcomes of restorative proctocolectomy for ulcerative colitis in the elderly.

Background: Restorative proctocolectomy with ileopouch-anal anastomosis (IPAA) is the treatment of choice for intractable or complicated ulcerative colitis (UC). Debate exists concerning outcomes of IPAA in the elderly and literature data are scarce. We report our experience of IPAA in older population.