Why do you need an enema before surgery?

When the patient undergoes surgery, if it is general anesthesia, he may need an enema before the surgery. The purpose of enema is to reduce intestinal gas during surgery, avoid adverse effects on surgery due to intestinal gas, and reduce the possibility of intestinal damage. Therefore, some surgeries require enema in advance. Before performing an enema during surgery, you must understand some precautions and make preparations.

Why do you need an enema before surgery?

For patients under general anesthesia, since they cannot get out of bed to defecate after surgery and their intestinal function cannot be restored immediately after surgery, it is very necessary to reduce intestinal contents before surgery. The method is fasting and intestinal cleansing.

What is the purpose of bowel preparation? Reduce intestinal flatulence during surgery to facilitate exposure; reduce intestinal interference to facilitate surgery; reduce the risk of intestinal injury; avoid serious complications after injury, etc.

Preoperative dietary preparation, mechanical bowel preparation and medical bowel preparation. Preoperative dietary preparation includes eating light, low-residue or no-residue food three days before surgery and liquid food one day before surgery. Mechanical bowel preparation includes taking cathartics before surgery, such as magnesium sulfate, sodium phosphate solution, polyethylene glycol electrolyte powder (Sulta), and enema before surgery. Medical bowel preparation refers to the oral administration of intestinal antibiotics before surgery, such as metronidazole, gentamicin, etc.

Enema is a method of injecting a certain amount of liquid from the anus through the rectum into the colon to help patients clean the intestines, defecate, pass gas, or supply medicine or nutrition from the intestines to achieve the purpose of determining diagnosis and treatment.

Because preoperative enema may cause serious problems such as dehydration, hypotension, and syncope in patients, which is not conducive to postoperative recovery of patients. Therefore, there are different opinions in the medical community about whether enema is needed before surgery.

2015 "Chinese Expert Consensus on the Application of Enhanced Recovery After Surgery in Colorectal Surgery": Intestinal preparation is of no benefit to patients undergoing colon surgery and may increase the risk of postoperative intestinal anastomotic leakage. Therefore, routine bowel preparation is not recommended for patients scheduled for colorectal surgery.