So, what to do? Have some poop…

So, what to do? Have some poop…

By: Sasha Klemawesch, MD

 

It may sound crazy, but cure rates for FMT (fecal microbiota transplant) are typically over 90% for recurrent cases.  What is FMT you ask?  Basically, a poop slushy.  Sounds gross, but that’s what it is; poop is taken from a healthy donor who has been thoroughly screened for pathogenic bacteria.  It is then filtered, mixed with liquid and administered to the recipient patient in one of several ways; either capsule pills, NGT or endoscopy (tube from the top into the stomach/small intestine), colonoscopy (tube up the behind), or an enema.  While we only recently adopted it into standard human medical care, vets have been using it for a century.  The idea is similar to that behind probiotics; that if you are restoring the natural flora in your GI tract, this in turn regains the upper hand and tamps down the C-diff. It is becoming more and more commonly adopted into practice, especially at large tertiary centers, but perhaps even more exciting is that now that FMT’s benefits in the treatment of C-diff has been proven, there have been a multitude of off-shoot studies and trials investigating its potential role in the future treatments  of inflammatory and irritable bowel syndromes, obesity, diabetes, MD, Parkinson’s, atopic conditions, rheumatoid arthritis, autism and depression.   And that’s no BS!

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