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Part 2: A different kind of transplant
According to Rockfordâs WREX.com: âTwo of the most common (and often life-threatening) bacterium found in Illinois hospitals are C diff and MRSA, a virulent staph infection. The C diff rate has more than doubled in the last decade, while MRSA rates have remained steady.â
The Rockford television channel adds that the Illinois Department of Public Health initiated an education campaign in March 2012 to assist healthcare providers in controlling C diff statistical increases throughout the state. Illinois is fortunate as one of 15 states to have received funding from the Centers for Disease Control for C diff colitis.
Having had uncured C diff colitis for over a year, one current Sun City resident feared she was dying. Her weight loss was enormous and her strength waned due to the loss of nutrients from her body. She found the answer to her health problems recently in a proactive online search that helped her make the decision for a stool or feces transplant.
Part 3 of this C diff series will consider the pros (the strong research findings backing this transplant) and a few cons of the stool procedure. You will discover the possible uses of gut flora (bacteria in the intestinal area) in battling a variety of other illnesses as well.
Because FDA approval is necessary for physicians to conduct the procedure, stool transplants are still relatively uncommon in the United States.
According to a January 2013 USA Today article, fecal transplants âare one of the first new treatments to emerge from the burgeoning study of the ‘human microbiome,’ the collection of 100 trillion bacteria, fungi, and other microscopic bugs that live in and on the human body.â Vail Valley (Co.) Magazine states that as far back as 1958, Dr. Ben Eiseman in Denver General Hospital was documented as having performed the first transplant of its kind. The magazine adds âHe was able to eradicate a certain kind of antibiotic resistant colitis, in four of his patients, with one treatment.â
What exactly does this transplant consist of? According to John Hopkins Medicineâs January 2014 newsletter, fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT), âinvolves transferring stool from a healthy donor to the gastrointestinal tract of a patient sick with C difficile colitis.â It can be extremely helpful to those long-suffering patients, especially the 15 to 26 percent of individuals where antibiotic treatment is ineffective.
Once a doctor and transplant is decided on, a potential donor must be chosen. The donor can come from a hospital or physicianâs donor bank, a relative, or a friend. In all cases, the donor must be healthy: not have taken any antibiotics in the past six months, not have any gastrointestinal disorder, nor an immune disorder or be on immunosuppressive drugs. John Hopkins also says, âThe donor undergoes blood and stool screening to ensure that infectious pathogens like C difficile or…hepatitis or HIV arenât present.â
Next the patient is advised to not take any antibiotics immediately before the transplant and as long as possible after the transplantation. The evening before the procedure, he or she will prepare their colon as they would for a colonoscopy. On the day of the transplant, the donor will supply a fresh stool to be used. After it is diluted into a liquid, the feces is infused into the patientâs body in one of two ways: the most common being a colonoscopy or less common through a nasoduodenal tube (from the nose into the colon). Anesthesia or a sedative may be used. As in a colonscopy, the patient will be allowed to go home from the medical treatment center in a brief period of time.
Side effects, according to JHMâs newsletter, âcan include temporary mild diarrhea, cramping and belching.â If symptoms disappear and a relapse doesnât happen within eight weeks, the FMT is considered a success.
Next edition: Part 3: A resident chooses a FMT to save her own life
