Chlorhexidine Mouthwash and Bacterial Contamination During Endoscopy

Background:

Natural Orifice Transluminal Endoscopic Surgery (NOTES) is a surgical technique that has been rapidly evolving over the last five years. The technique probably has a great potential in surgical gastroenterology, urology and gynaecology.

The technique is based on the idea of minimally invasive surgery. The human organism is affected by a stress response when exposed to surgery. This stress response can be minimized by reducing the size of the openings whereby the surgeon gains access to the organs. This affects how quickly a patient recovers after surgery and can be discharged and resumes daily life and work. The same principal have been responsible for the surgical evolution in the last 15-20 years where many procedures have gone from traditional open operations with large incisions in the abdominal wall to laparoscopic surgery with cameras through small holes in the abdominal wall.

The latest addition to minimal invasive surgery is NOTES. Here the surgeon gains access to the abdominal organs with flexible endoscopes through the body's natural openings i.e. the mouth and stomach. With this technique the surgeon avoids cutting through skin and muscle of the abdominal wall, thus minimizing the surgical stress response. This minimizes postoperative pain, the incidence of incisional hernias, eliminates wound infection, and properly prevents scar tissue formation inside the abdominal cavity which way lead to ileus. The end result is a quicker discharge and a better cosmetic result.

It has been shown in numerous animal studies that NOTES is feasible and in recent years a rapidly increasing number of published patient series.

However, there is a risk of infection associated with accessing the abdominal cavity through a natural body opening, which initially is unclean and can not be disinfected in the same way as the skin of the abdominal wall.

Numerous microbiological pig studies have shown that there is transfer of bacteria from the body opening (i.e. mouth) to the abdominal cavity when performing NOTES, but this contamination have no correlation to infection after surgery, neither in terms of healing or survival.

It is unclear from the literature whether patients should be offered proton pump inhibitor (PPI) therapy to reduce the acidity of the stomach before NOTES interventions. The rationale has been that such a treatment can make the gastric juices less acidic and thereby reduce the incidence of chemical peritonitis, which can occur when acidic juices flows from the stomach and into the abdominal cavity. It is known however that the acidic environment of the stomach provides a natural barrier for bacteria. Making the gastric juices less acidic could potentially increase the risk of bacterial peritonitis.

It is known that the bacterial content of the stomach is low due the acidic environment but bacteria passed down from the mouth and throat with the endoscope could potentially result in bacterial peritonitis.

That bacteria from the throat can lead to infections due to instrumentation is known from intensive care units. Ventilated patients may risk getting pneumonia with bacteria from the throat. Several studies have shown that using mouthwash with a chlorhexidine solution can reduce the risk of ventilator associated pneumonia.

Hypothesis:

Mouthwash with 2 cl 0,2% chlorhexidine solution before a gastroscopy reduces the bacterial content in cultures taken from the stomach and the endoscope after a gastroscopy.

Simultaneous PPI treatment gives higher bacterial counts in the cultures.