Upon encountering a patient who develops an anastomotic leak after a straight-forward low anterior resection, you are taken aback, as the patient is healthy and has no apparent risk factors. This prompts you to consider whether the microbiota may have played a role in causing the leak.

Join Dr. Carole Richard, Dr. François Dagbert, Dr. Maher Al Khaldi, and Dr. Roy Hajjar in their conversation about the impact of gut microbiota on anastomotic healing and leak. 

Learning objectives 
- To list the known risk factors for anastomotic leak.
- To understand how preoperative gut microbiota influence anastomotic healing and could lead to leak. 

Reference
Hajjar R, Gonzalez E, Fragoso G, et al. Gut microbiota influence anastomotic healing in colorectal cancer surgery through modulation of mucosal proinflammatory cytokines. Gut. Published Online First: 30 December 2022. doi: 10.1136/gutjnl-2022-328389

Ad referenced in episode: A team at the Brooke Army Medical Center is working to better define proficiency-based metrics for competency in commonly performed robotic general surgery procedures. If you are a general surgery resident or practicing surgeon who performs robotic assisted cholecystectomies or inguinal hernia repairs,  reach out to the PI, Robert Laverty, MD, at rblaverty@gmail.com for more information on how you could be compensated $500 per video submitted of each (up to $1000 per surgeon).

Please visit https://behindtheknife.org to access other high-yield surgical education podcasts, videos and more.  

If you liked this episode, check out other colorectal surgery episodes here: https://behindtheknife.org/podcast-category/colorectal/