Fecal transplants have showed promise in combating a variety of ailments says a new study from researchers at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. The procedure includes transplanting the feces from a healthy person into the gut of a sick person.
For the study, Dr. Lawrence Brandt and his team looked specifically at the procedure as a treatment for Clostridium difficile, a potentially deadly condition that hits one percent of all hospital patients in America. Those who received fecal transplants enjoyed a 94 percent recovery rate, which is roughly three times higher than those who merely took antibiotics.
"It's a strange concept to use stool, which has always been looked on as something dirty. We're entering a very exciting new chapter in medicine," says Brandt.
With further development, Brandt and his team believe this method could prove useful for the treatment of other conditions including obesity.
"The study is very exciting," said peer reviewer Dr. Colleen Kelly, of the Brown University's Alpert Medical School in Providence. "I hope this will help to change minds. Those of us who do them know they're effective, and to our patients, it's like a miracle."
by RTT Staff Writer
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