Prospective evaluation of peritoneal fluid contamination following transabdominal vs. transanal specimen extraction in laparoscopic left-sided colorectal resections.

Background: Natural orifice specimen extraction (NOSE) in colorectal surgery prevents the need for an enlarged port site or minilaparotomy to extract the surgical specimen. The downside of this technique may be an increased risk of bacterial contamination of the peritoneal cavity from the external milieu. The aim of this study was to prospectively analyze the peritoneal bacterial contamination in NOSE and non-NOSE laparoscopic colorectal procedures.