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The world of modern medicine never ceases to amaze. The latest high tech treatment for a potentially lethal infection.....a faecal transplant. Or in plain English......a shit sandwich. All will be explained below.
Clostridium difficile (C diff) is a bacteria normally found in the colon in very small amounts or not at all. The colon is normally packed full of "good" bacteria that crowd out nasties like C diff and stop it growing out of control. If C diff does take over, it causes severe diarrhoea. It can also cause a very serious condition called pseudomembranous colitis. There are several deaths every year from C diff.
C diff is normally linked to antibiotic use. Antibiotics wipe out the "good" bacteria and allow C diff to multiply. So it often affects already ill people. Conventional treatments for C diff are metronidazole and vancomycin. Vancomycin can also be delivered into the colon directly via a catheter passed through the rectum. In some cases, even these treatments fail.
The last line treatment is the faecal transplant.Firstly, the colon is sterilised with vancomycin. A nasogastric tube is then passed and an emulsion of faecal matter is then delivered into the stomach. This then seeds the gut with "good bacteria", preventing C diff from taking over. So far, this treatment has had very positive results.
