SEATTLE — The bacteria in our digestive system is necessary for processing food, preventing allergic reactions and helping out our immune system. However, upsetting the delicate balance of the different types of bacteria in our gut can be devastating to our digestion. In some cases, doctors say new bacteria can re-establish the microbiome inside our bodies through Fecal Microbiome Transplantation (FMT).
"It's basically a process where we will obtain stool specimen from a healthy screened donor and transplant that stool into another individual, typically very ill, and has been diagnosed with C.diff colitis," explained Medical Director of Swedish Gastroenterology Operations and Gastroenterologist Dr. LuLu Iles-Shih.
Clostridium difficile colitis, or C.diff, is currently the only diagnosis the FDA has approved for the FMT procedure. "That's a particular infection of the colon that often results after the use of antibiotics for pneumonia or urinary tract infection," says Dr. Iles-Shih. Sufferers experience profuse watery diarrhea that leads to significant weight loss, abdominal pain and repeat hospitalization that can be a physical and financial burden. In those cases, says Dr. Iles-Smith, the FDA has approved FMT as a safe treatment.
Fecal transplantation is used to try to rebalance the gut flora in which healthy bacteria have been wiped out, allowing other types of bacteria to overgrow.
"The goal here is to reintroduce healthy bacteria via a stool method, in this particular case, in order to get your gut back to its normal balanced and happy healthy state".
There are three different methods that Dr. Iles-Shih talked about using for the procedure:
- Lower Gastrointestinal Access, where the prepared stool is delivered directly via colonoscopy or rectal enemas.
- Upper Gastrointestinal Access, by using a tube through your nose into the stomach space and beyond.
- In Pill Form, where individuals "Just have to be willing to take a good amount of capsules per treatment in order to eradicate their infection."
Dr. Iles-Shih told us that more research, time, and money is being dedicated to studying gut flora and how it affects the human body. "There are over a thousand different bacterial species within our gastrointestinal system to account for our overall health," she explains, "And ideally if we can identify certain gut flora to be associated with certain symptoms or even certain conditions, we're hoping that we can alter that gut flora to resolve certain symptoms and possibly get rid of and cure certain diseases."
For now, C.diff remains the only FDA approved diagnosis for the use of Fecal Microbiome Transplantation, but that could change, "We're hoping that perhaps this can be a tool that can be used in the future to alter the gut flora in a very healthy way."