“…Careful balancing of risks (dehydration, fluid homeostasis, patient satisfaction) and potential benefits of MBP is necessary, given the lesser impact on the patient of superficial incisional SSI, which can often be managed in an outpatient setting. 16,17 This fact applies likewise to the rates of deep incisional SSI in patients with rectal cancer (0.9% vs 0.1%), where the incidence in both groups was very low. Nevertheless, the risk of underreporting of these complications in a national dataset has to be considered.…”