[Decontamination of the digestive tract during recovery from anesthesia]

Selective digestive tract decontamination is expected to decrease colonization and infection rate in intensive care patients. Its efficacy in this regards, when associated to systemic cefotaxime for the first few days of hospitalization, appears established in surgical patients. However, its superiority over established control and prophylactic measures remains unproven, in terms of reduced mortality, length of hospital stay, or overall use of antibiotics. Moreover, its long term effect on the risk of emergence of bacteria resistant to the regimens used remains to be proved.