Experimental whole gut irrigation in the rat.

An animal model of whole gut irrigation (WGI) in the rat was developed to study the effects of the irrigation procedure on the gastrointestinal microflora. Irrigation was performed with as well as without neomycin (1,000 mg/l) in the irrigation fluid. At the end of the irrigation procedure the animals were intragastrically contaminated with 2 neomycin-resistant Enterobacteriaceae strains (i.e. an Escherichia coli and a Klebsiella pneumoniae) to study the intestinal colonization by these strains. Although both contaminating strains persisted longer in the animals treated with irrigation fluid with neomycin than in those treated with mere irrigation fluid, persistence was only significantly longer with the E. coli strain (p less than 0.025). It seems likely that the condition of the--mainly anaerobic--mucosa-associated microflora after WGI was responsible for this difference in duration of colonization by the contaminating E. coli strain.