C Diff and fecal transplantation

September 23, 2008

Doug Farrago riffs on C Diff. I talked about this previously, but two regulations are putting doctors in a difficult situation.

On one hand, there is a 6-hour mandate that antibiotics be started on patients suspected with pneumonia. This despite the fact that it may take longer to cement the diagnosis. The resulting use of occasionally unneeded antibiotics places patients at risk for C Difficile colitis.

Of course, patients contracting C Diff is a new “never” event. Sometimes I’m glad I no longer work in the hospital.

He also touches on fecal transplantation as an emerging treatment for the disease:

It seems you can harvest stool from a relative and place it in the patients colon and it may help treat C. diff. Wow! Now that is a field I can sink my teeth into. Competition has got to be minimal for this. I could specialize as a fecal transplantologist. They could fly me around in a special medical helicopter with my coolers filled with stool ready to help patients with their C. diff.

Yum.



Related posts:

  1. "Fecal transplant": Curing C Diff by ingesting stool?
  2. Fecal DNA tests
  3. C Diff without antibiotic exposure
  4. Fecal disimpaction
  5. How do fecal transplants work?
  6. How accurate is a colonoscopy to screen for colon cancer?
  7. Live donor liver transplantation


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{ 2 comments }

1 ERP September 23, 2008 at 9:03 am

Now that is a new one. Perhaps patients could just treat themselves at home with an enema bag!

2 josh July 13, 2009 at 5:45 pm

Funny, I found this looking for at-home fecal transplant suggestions … I was diagnosed with UC and looking at the transplant as an alternative to heavy drugs.

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