The half-century old medical procedure has long been a measure of last resort, its mere mention enough to make a room full of doctors wrinkle their noses and laugh like schoolchildren: When a patient suffers from a gastrointestinal infection that keeps coming back, try transplanting someone else’s feces into the gut to restore a normal balance of healthy bacteria.
The scatological treatment may seem more medieval than modern, but over the past decade, doctors have increasingly stopped snickering and started to try it — with promising results. There is now a flurry of new trials at cutting-edge medical centers in Boston and elsewhere, and on Wednesday, a rigorous randomized trial published by Dutch researchers found that most patients with serious, recurrent infections caused by the bacteria C. difficile got better when donor feces were infused into their intestines. That study was halted early because the patients fared so much better than a group given standard antibiotic therapy.
Comments
Excellent article. I read about this topic yesterday in the NYT and expected this to be the usual condensed version. But this treatment has plenty of new information plus a new case study. Thank you, Ms. Johnson.
Alike today's article on the discovery of new tick born diseases, it's nice to see MDs keep an open mind to HELP patients often in the abscence of "Science."
Alike the discovery of H-Pylori bacteria re: stomach uclers, when persistent & dedicated MDs keep open minds and think outside the box, discoveries are made that enure to the benefits of ALL.
Ah! Then there's hope for Donald Trump!
Enough of this S***.