Patients who develop Clostridium difficile infections are afflicted with debilitating diarrhea. When these bacteria take over the digestive tract after antibiotic treatment they can be very difficult to eradicate.
One strategy that has worked has a very high ick factor. In a fecal transplant, stool from a healthy person is administered via a colonoscopy or through nasogastric tube.
Making Stool Transplant Less Disgusting
Now, researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital have developed a less challenging technique. They have strained, centrifuged and frozen healthy stool and put it into capsules.
Most people have little difficulty swallowing these pills which can restore a healthier bacterial balance to the digestive tract. Of the 20 patients treated for C. diff, 19 experienced dramatic relief from diarrhea and other digestive woes.
