A Gross Cure for Recurrent C. diff
When antibiotics fail, fecal transplants are remarkably effective.
A
s cases of
recurrent
Clostridium
difficile infections
soar, a promising new
treatment has
emerged: fecal micro-
biota transplantation,
which is exactly as it
sounds — lining the
colon of a C. diff-
infected patient with
slurried stool from a healthy donor after antibiotic treatments have
failed.
The donor stool is diluted with a saline or other solution and
strained before it's placed in a patient — usually by colonoscopy,
nasogastric tube or capsule. The idea is to fight off C. diff by repopu-
lating the digestive tract with good bacteria that may have been be
killed off by antibiotics, according to the Fecal Transplant Foundation
(thefecaltransplantfoundation.org).
The power of poop
The incidence of C. diff infections has been rising dramatically in the
21
st
century. A recent study published in Annals of Internal Medicine
tracked the nationwide surge in cases from 2001 to 2012
(osmag.net/9adfcv). By examining data from nearly 39 million
patients, researchers found that cases of multiple recurring C. diff had
increased by 189%, and cases of common C. diff had increased by 43%.
1 0 8 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E • A U G U S T 2 0 1 7
Infection Prevention
Jim Burger, Senior Editor
• VILE VIAL Fecal microbiota transplants — whether administered via colonoscopy,
upper endoscopy, nasogastric tubes or tablets — have a success rate for resolving
recurrent Clostridium difficile of at least 80%.
