Why is it that i need to do a bowel prep for a hysterectomy?

Safety: It is not common to have a bowel prep. It can be recommended for cancer or if adhesions and scar tissue such as prior surgery raise the risk for possible bowel injuries. It is safer to have a bowel prep than risk infection with a bowel injury.

Caution: Some surgeons require a bowel prep before a number of different types of surgeries because of the chance that the bowel could be injured, especially of they suspect that scar tissue could be present. Many abdominal surgeries are made easier by having patients do a bowel prep in order to empty the bowels of stool and thereby decrease the size of the bowel during the surgery.