Laxatives Before Gastric Bypass Surgery?

One of the concerns bowel surgeons have is that when the intestines are divided and re-routed, bowel contents may be spilled into the abdominal cavity causing a serious infection. For this reason, for over a century surgeons have been reducing the sheer volume of intra-intestinal contents by putting patients on liquid diets, reducing particulate matter and then using laxatives the day before surgery to empty the colon. I'm not sure why you need laxatives if you are not having a colon... more