Studies have shown that the most effective way to restore intestinal microflora is a stool transplant from a healthy donor.
Content
What is a stool transplant?
The word “transplantation” implies the direct removal of an organ from one person and transplantation of it into another. However, the expression stool transplantation should not be taken literally. This involves transplanting beneficial microbes. Many people are still prejudiced against this method. But at major medical congresses, reports on the results of its use arouse great interest.
When is it used?
Currently, a huge number of scientific articles have been published proving that curing many diseases is impossible without normalizing the intestinal microflora. You can read about this in the article “ Dysbacteriosis ”.
Widely used drugs do not provide the desired effect, especially in cases of severe bowel dysfunction, and they also have many harmful side effects.
Such a case is infection with the intestinal bacterium Clostridium difficile. This disease is written about in the article “ Clostridia ”.
After this pathology, patients develop severe diarrhea. It is so strong that elderly patients can even die. No medications or antibiotics help. At best, they only pause the process.
Therefore, the first trials of stool transplantation from a healthy donor began to be carried out specifically on patients in this group. (Of course, after numerous experiments on animals, which showed excellent results).
American scientists have been conducting these studies since 2000. They showed that immediately after transplantation of a healthy microbiota, patients feel better, and in less severe cases, recovery occurs. If recovery does not occur during the first transplantation, it is achieved after repeating the procedure.
Now scientists around the world are actively working with this method.
Research has shown that in addition to treating intestinal infections, fecal bacteria transplants from donors can help reduce excess weight, according to an article published in the journal Science Translational Medicine. Researchers hope through further experiments to determine the mechanism by which bacteria influence the weight loss process and, perhaps, to offer a new, non-surgical method of weight loss.
You can read about the causes of obesity here .
Several years ago, Australian scientists proposed treating patients suffering from both Parkinson's disease and constipation using stool transplants.
Considering the fact that scientists associate a large number of diseases with disturbances in the intestinal microflora, this method will find wide application as it is safe for the treatment of severe pathologies, especially diseases associated with metabolic disorders.
Ulrich Rosniyen, chief physician of the Israeli hospital in Hamburg, praised this method at a medical congress. He said that “the procedure is so superior to traditional treatment that it can be recommended as the new standard for recurrent infections.”
What complications can there be?
We must be aware that this procedure must be performed in a well-equipped, trustworthy clinic. All reported complications were caused either by poor donor selection and improper handling of feces, or by irregularities during the procedure.
These are complications such as:
- transmission of infections;
- entry of material into the respiratory tract;
- nausea and vomiting;
- abdominal pain;
- bloating;
- temporary rise in temperature.
Requirements for donors
The first standards for identifying donors suitable for the procedure have already been developed.
All of them must be examined for
- the presence of infections of any nature,
- infection with worms , Giardia , rotavirus ,
- the presence of inflammatory bowel diseases.
How is the procedure performed?
Stool collected from donors is used as transplant material within the next 6-8 hours or frozen at a temperature of minus 80 degrees. In the latter case, it is successfully stored for 1-8 weeks. Before the transplantation procedure itself, it should be thawed well, this will take some time (2-4 hours). A special liquid suspension is prepared from the feces of one or several donors (their number can reach 7) and physiological solution. It is administered to patients using:
- regular enema;
- gastroscope or colonoscope (endoscopic device), for example such Olympus video gastroscopes ;
- nasogastric tube (passed through the nose into the stomach or small intestine).
The world's first fecal sample bank has already been created in the United States. Scientists note that standardization methods in this area have not yet been developed. They believe that each specimen should be accompanied by a carefully documented history of stool transplants. The lack of strict reporting and standards is a disadvantage of this method at present. However, they see the development of the method in the transition from the storage of feces to the storage of isolated microbes.
Latest Scientific Advances
Current methods of fecal microbiota transplantation - transplanting feces taken from healthy donors through a colonoscope, nasogastric tube or enema - have a potential risk of damage to the gastrointestinal tract and cause some discomfort to patients.
American scientists have proposed an oral method of stool transplantation (through the mouth) in the treatment of intestinal infections. The study, published in JAMA, found that taking frozen stool capsules was as effective and safe in controlling Clostridium difficile diarrhea as inserting stool through a colonoscope or nasogastric tube.
The new approach involves freezing the feces of healthy donors, then packing the resulting mixture of intestinal bacteria into acid-resistant capsules for oral administration. A preliminary laboratory analysis of fecal samples is carried out for various infections and allergens.
So far, preliminary studies have been conducted on 20 people with an intestinal infection caused by Clostridium diffisil. For two days, each subject took 15 capsules with fecal contents.
In 14 people, experimental therapy led to complete disappearance of symptoms of the disease after a single two-day course. The remaining six study participants underwent a second course of treatment, after which the patients' condition also returned to normal.
During the trial, no side effects of the drug were noted. As the study authors note, patients who required a second course of therapy had worse initial health status than other patients. “The preliminary data obtained indicate the safety and effectiveness of the new approach,” the researchers noted. Larger, more extensive studies will now be conducted to confirm these findings and identify the most effective oral bacterial mixtures.
Loading...
