Fecal Microbiota Transplantation for Clostridium difficile Infection: A One-Center Experience

Background: Clostridium difficile is a gram-positive, anaerobic, and spore-forming bacillus, which is responsible for the majority of antibiotic-associated diarrhea and colitis.

Objective: Determine if fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) is effective in a population sample from Connecticut.

Methods: We report the clinical experience of 92 consecutive patients from one gastroenterology practice in central Connecticut treated by colonoscopy with FMT for infection with Clostridium difficile from 2012 to 2017. The analyses are based on clinical follow-up up to 3 months after the FMT procedure and on medical chart review.

Results: Overall, complete recovery occurred in 86% of patients. As previously reported in a limited number of previous studies, community-acquired cases were more common than hospital-acquired cases, and community-acquired cases were more likely to be female.

Conclusions: Consistent with some previous reports, we found the following: the source of the donor for FMT did not make a difference in recovery: material from nonrelatives was as effective as from close relatives; and the presence of multiple comorbidities did not make a difference in recovery: patients with 2 or more comorbidities did as well as those with one or none.