Two days after performing FMT, the patient started showing positive response. (Representational)
A healthy person's stool recently helped cure a 78-year-old man here suffering from persistent diarrhoea along with bleeding.
The patient was admitted with fever, bloody diarrhoea, hypotension and tachycardia (high heart rate). His stool examination showed persistence of C. DIFFICLE (a bad bacteria) causing Pseudomembranous Colitis (ulcers in large intestine), leading to persistent diarrhoea with bleeding, a statement from the hospital read.
He had already been treated for two episodes of Pseudomembranous Colitis (PMC) with standard treatment.
"The only viable option for this disease was to take stool from a healthy person and transplant it in the large intestine of the patient. This leads to an increase in good bacteria in the intestine and suppression of C. DIFFICLE," Dr Piyush Ranjan, vice-chairperson, Institute of Liver Gastroenterology & Pancreatico Biliary Sciences, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, said.
The senior doctor said the hospital has in the past performed faecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) for severe alcoholic hepatitis not responding to steroids or having side effects of steroids and Ulcerative Colitis.
"This is a rare case of the patient being treated with recurrent PMC treated with FMT in our country," he said.
Two days after performing FMT, the patient started showing positive response and his clinical condition improved. He was discharged subsequently and is doing well at two months of follow-up, Dr Ranjan said.
Pseudomembranous Colitis (PMC) is a condition when a harmful bacteria called Clostridium Difficle starts multiplying faster. This is a known side effect of prolonged antibiotic intake.
This condition usually affects the elderly and people on prolonged antibiotic therapy, chemotherapy or immunosuppressive medications. Diarrhoea, blood in stool, fever and pain abdomen are among the symptoms exhibited by the patients.
In patients who have a relapse beyond the second episode, FMT is the best treatment option, according to experts.
It entails transferring stool extract from a healthy person after appropriate tests in the patients. This can be done by colonoscopy in the large intestine or in the small intestine.