Preoperative oral antibiotics and surgical-site infections in colon surgery (ORALEV): a multicentre, single-blind, pragmatic, randomised controlled trial.

Background: Previous studies have found that mechanical bowel preparation with oral antibiotics can reduce the incidence of surgical-site infections, but no randomised controlled trial has assessed oral antibiotics alone without mechanical bowel preparation. The aim of this study was to determine whether prophylaxis with oral antibiotics the day before elective colon surgery affects the incidence of postoperative surgical-site infections.

Methods: In this multicentre, pragmatic, randomised controlled trial (ORALEV), patients undergoing colon surgery were recruited from five major hospitals in Spain and 47 colorectal surgeons at these hospitals participated.