Wednesday September 20, 2006

Q; What's the last resort of treating clostridium difficile when all other therapies fail and patient continue to have relapsing severe clostridium difficile infection ?


A; Stool Donation !!

Infusion of healthy stool (from donor) in patient's bowel via colonoscope, enema or a naso-jejunal tube. Sounds weird but idea is to restore human bowel flora. Actually, published reports shows that stool donation kills and eradicates C. diff. spores with a very high cure rate.



References:

Treatment of Recurrent Clostridium difficile-Associated Diarrhea by Administration of Donated Stool Directly Through a Colonoscope - Am J Gastroenterol. 2000 Nov;95(11):3283-5.

The effect of faecal enema on five microflora-associated characteristics in patients with antibiotic-associated diarrhoea. Scand J Gastroenterol 1999;34:580-6.