Background: Infection following abdominal surgery remains a major factor in morbidity among colorectal cancer (CRC) patients. Probiotic therapy has been suggested to improve the clinical and laboratory outcome of patients undergoing gastrointestinal surgery. The aim of this study was to investigate the efficacy of probiotic lactic acid bacteria in patients with CRC in the pre- and postoperative phases.
Methods: Systematic database searches identified 1,080 related articles. However, only seven articles were selected according to the eligibility criteria for qualitative and quantitative evaluation.
Results: Most of the reviewed articles presented satisfactory results related to the prevention of surgical inflammation in patients undergoing resection of CRC when using strains of Lactobacillus genus, predominantly.
Conclusions: Probiotics are suggested to prevent surgical inflammation of CRC, at the same time that the combination of particular microorganisms administered is beneficial to the treatment and surgical recovery.
Keywords: Colorectal cancer (CRC); meta-analysis; perioperative; probiotics.