Unusual Treatment Being Used To Treat C. Diff Patients
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - Hundreds of thousands of people suffer from a bacterial infection in their intestines that could be life-threatening.
Many of those people are now resorting to an unusual treatment.
Kathleen Chesley developed a strep infection after a hip replacement. She needed daily antibiotics for months.
"The antibiotics just created havoc with my body. And the doctor said that's when the C. diff started," Chesley said.
C. diff, or clostridium dificille, is intestinal bacteria that can take over when good bacteria die off from antibiotics. People with C. diff can have severe pain and diarrhea.
"I was afraid to go anywhere, because you never know when it's gonna hit," Chesley said. "As soon as you put a drop of food in your mouth, you're in the restroom."
As a result, she stopped eating.
"I was losing weight, looked emaciated, my color was gone," she said.
The usual treatments didn't work. That's when her doctor suggested a fecal transplant, which involves taking healthy stool from donors and placing it in her intestines to establish a healthier bacterial balance.
"A few people are completely disgusted about the thought of trying to put stool back into them. For the vast majority, they've been through so much, they're very eager," Allegheny General Hospital Gastroenterology's Dr. Kofi Clarke said.
The process is regulated by the Food and Drug Administration.
The donation comes from a pool of healthy volunteers, extensively screened for any transmissible illnesses. The stool is processed, frozen, and reconstituted on the day of the transplant. It is typically delivered by colonoscopy.
"Tough decision to do it. Because you just wondered about having somebody else's feces in your body," Chesley said. "It was like a powder, and they spray it in your body after the colonoscopy. Then, I was much more relaxed with the procedure."
Potential complications include the risks of colonoscopy such as puncturing the intestine during the procedure and the possibility of infection that escapes screening.
Household members have to be evaluated to make sure no other contacts are harboring C. diff.
These transplants are not done if you are immunosuppressed or if you have a terminal illness.
The screening costs of directed donation from a family member or friend can run up to $1,300, which makes the stool bank more attractive.
"The vast majority of our recipients are more interested in using the bank as opposed to finding people to donate for them," Dr. Clarke said. "The out of pocket expense for a lot of the recipients is in the few hundred dollars."
Chesley is now able to go out, eat, see a show and even travel. She got her weight back and her clothes fit again.
"It took a while for the good bacteria to take over the bad bacteria," she said. "I still have a little fear, but I'm much more social than I was."
Currently, the procedure is approved only for C. diff. In the future, inflammatory bowel disease and other intestinal problems might be treated this way.
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