Serial Endoscopic Surveillance & Direct Topical Antibiotics to Define the Role of Microbes in Anastomotic Healing

Rationale: The surgical complication of intestinal anastomotic leak remains a clear and present danger to patients despite advances in surgical technique and ever more powerful antibiotics. No surgeon is immune from this complication and leak rates have not changed in decades. The consequences of a leak (peritonitis, sepsis, death) can be so severe that in the case of rectal cancer, diverting ileostomies are routinely performed to divert the fecal stream away from the healing anastomosis. We have recently discovered that certain intestinal bacteria, with the capacity to express collagenase and cleave MMP9 (Matrix metallopeptidase 9) to its active collagen degrading form, play a key and causative role in anastomotic leak. These bacteria often escape elimination due to the failure of current antibiotic regimens and their delivery methods to remain functionally durable at anastomotic tissue sites. Purpose: This phase II clinical trial will track, in real time, the process of anastomotic healing and its associated microbiome by performing serial endoscopic surveillance (SES) following rectal cancer resection. By capturing anastomotic images and the associated microbial and inflammatory mediators from anastomotic fluids via SES performed at three time points following rectal cancer resection, we will correlate healing to microbial composition and inflammatory mediator status. Patients will be randomized and, at each time point, will receive lavage of their anastomosis with either saline or a triple antibiotic solution (ciprofloxacin, metronidazole, neomycin). An anastomotic healing score captured during SES will be compared between the two treatment arms and correlated to microbial and inflammatory mediator analyses of fluid samples to determine how intestinal microbes influence the process of anastomotic healing.

Sex

All

Minimum age

18 Years

Inclusion Criteria

* Diagnosis of rectal cancer
* Scheduled to undergo a low anterior resection (with the planned anastomosis within 10cm of the anal verge) and a diverting ileostomy
* 18 years of age or older
* Able to provide informed consent

Exclusion Criteria

* Prior medical history of or suspected diagnosis of inflammatory bowel disease or irritable bowel syndrome
* Pregnant or breastfeeding
* Allergy to lidocaine, ciprofloxacin, metronidazole or neomycin

• BACKGROUNDOlivas AD, Shogan BD, Valuckaite V, Zaborin A, Belogortseva N, Musch M, Meyer F, Trimble WL, An G, Gilbert J, Zaborina O, Alverdy JC. Intestinal tissues induce an SNP mutation in Pseudomonas aeruginosa that enhances its virulence: possible role in anastomotic leak. PLoS One. 2012;7(8):e44326. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0044326. Epub 2012 Aug 31. PMID 22952955
• BACKGROUNDShogan BD, Belogortseva N, Luong PM, Zaborin A, Lax S, Bethel C, Ward M, Muldoon JP, Singer M, An G, Umanskiy K, Konda V, Shakhsheer B, Luo J, Klabbers R, Hancock LE, Gilbert J, Zaborina O, Alverdy JC. Collagen degradation and MMP9 activation by Enterococcus faecalis contribute to intestinal anastomotic leak. Sci Transl Med. 2015 May 6;7(286):286ra68. doi: 10.1126/scitranslmed.3010658. PMID 25947163