Complicated diarrheal diseases are increasing – and they can be fatal. Healing brings donor faeces into the damaged intestinal flora (stool transplant). This treatment should now become the standard, experts say.
- Stool transplantation is a relatively new treatment option for diarrhea.
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Stool transplantation, also called "microbiome transfer", is sometimes life-saving in the case of recurrent, severe diarrhea caused by the pathogen Clostridium difficile.
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This is how a stool transplant works
During microbiome transfer, doctors transfer the stool of a healthy donor into the patient's intestine in order to rebuild the damaged intestinal flora. The potential donor is first examined for infectious diseases.
Then the donor chair is liquefied with a saline solution, filtered and passed through a probe through the nose into the patient's intestine. There the microbiome – the mixture of bacteria in the donor chair – can develop its effects and repair the intestinal flora.
The donor chair can also be inserted directly into the small intestine. Some clinics also carry out stool transplantation against diarrhea in the course of a colonoscopy or through an enema with the faecal solution.
Stool transplant cures diarrhea from clostridia
"The procedure is so far superior to conventional treatment that it can be recommended as the new standard for recurrent infections with Clostridium difficile," says Ulrich Rosien from the medical clinic at the Israelite Hospital in Hamburg.
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Some of the patients simply cannot get rid of the pathogens with the current treatment, explains the gastroenterologist. "These people can be permanently healed by transferring foreign stool." A study published in 2013 also concluded that stool transfer leads to a cure at a rate of 90 percent even in previously hopeless cases.
Severe diarrhea on the rise in Germany
The number of infections with the diarrhea Clostridium difficile is increasing strongly in Germany. The complicated courses, which affect older people in particular, are becoming more frequent. In the worst case, they end in death.
The pathogens are particularly dangerous in connection with antibiotics: if the medication disturbs the balance of the healthy intestinal flora, clostridia can multiply massively. The result is severe diarrhea. The previous standard treatment consisted of antibiotic therapy specially tailored to the diarrheal patients.
Stool transplant for obesity and ulcerative colitis
Experts see stool transplantation not only as an extremely promising option against Clostridium infections with severe courses: the microbiome transfer could also be used against other diseases.
"In one study it was observed that obese people lost weight after a microbiome transfer from stool to slim because their own insulin worked better afterwards," explains Rosien a possible application of the therapy. In addition, the procedure against chronic intestinal inflammation (IBD), irritable bowel syndrome or persistent constipation can help – in short, all conditions that are connected with a changed intestinal flora.
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