Gut microbiota, dysbiosis and colon lavage

Abstract Gut microbial dysbiosis is considered an alteration of diversity and abundance of intestinal microbes, which contributes to the onset of many disorders. Several factors cause dysbiosis, depending on life-style (nutrition, stress, environment, smoking, physical activity) or particular diseases (inflammatory, autoimmune, chronic diseases). Drugs (i.e. antibiotics, anticancer drugs), as well as medical and surgical procedures, can often cause dysbiosis. Mechanical bowel preparations (MBP) and the so called "bowel cleansing" have an immediate impact on intestinal microbial composition. Whether these "acute" changes may lead to any clinical consequences is still unknown. It is tempting to speculate that such dysbiosis fostering events, at least in patients already presenting abdominal complaints, such as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), or inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients, may drive additional or more severe symptoms. Recently, the possibility of using probiotic supplementation has been addressed in the literature, with the purpose to counteract intestinal dysfunctional changes observed in relation to a dysbiotic state. Whereas probiotics are recognized to be effective and safe in restoring gut microbiota dysbiosis, preliminary evidence suggest that this approach may prove helpful even in case of transient dysbiotic states related to colonoscopy bowel preparation.