Transplant of feces substitutes antibiotics

• May 22, 2024

The superbug c-diff (Clostridium difficile ) causes a disabling diarrhea that in some cases even the strongest antibiotics can not stop. In the search for a solution , experts began to try a treatment based on using beneficial bacteria to fight harmful ones, through the stool transplant of a healthy person to the colon of a sick patient. During the process, a whole neighborhood of bacteria moves with the transfer, almost like an organ transplant but without the need for medicines rejection inhibitors, said the doctor Alexander Khoruts , from the University of Minnesota (United States), one of the pioneers of this procedure.

Between the doctor's experiences Khoruts highlights the case of a patient who after 8 months of infection by c-diff was benefited with a fecal transplant. Consequently, not only did the diarrhea after the transfer, but the beneficial bacteria began to repopulate their intestine .

In general, patients with severe c-diff infections are treated with strong doses of the antibiotic. vancomycin which can last for weeks or months; However, the antibiotics they also kill beneficial germs which helps the bacteria Clostridium difficile can subsist easier in a colon lacking beneficial bacteria of the human organism.

As mentioned by the Yahoo portal, fecal transplants have not been studied with strict scientific order, so a more rigorous investigation is not ruled out.

Video Medicine: How Fecal Transplants Can Save Lives (May 2024).