Fecal Transplantation: “Frozen is as Good as Fresh”

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Besides pointing out that someone could make $13,000 per year selling their stool, a recent Washington Post story summarized a JAMA study (JAMA. 2016;315(2):142-149. doi:10.1001/jama.2015.18098) which indicated that frozen stool works as well as fresh stool in treating Clostridium difficile infection.

In this study:

Design: Randomized, double-blind, noninferiority trial enrolling 232 adults with recurrent or refractory CDI, conducted between July 2012 and September 2014 at 6 academic medical centers in Canada.

Key finding: In the per-protocol population, the proportion of patients with clinical resolution was 83.5% for the frozen FMT group and 85.1% for the fresh FMT group

Washington Post Summary In fecal matter transplants, frozen is as good as fresh

Here’s an excerpt:

The new study, led by McMaster University’s Christine H. Lee and published Tuesday in JAMA, found that patients given donations that had been frozen for up to 30 days fared just as well as those given fresh samples…

Lee and her colleagues administered one or two FMT enemas to 178 patients, splitting them into two groups to compare freshly-harvested samples and ones that had been frozen and defrosted. Thirteen weeks later, 85 percent of the fresh patients were diarrhea-free. In the frozen group, the success rate reached 83.5 percent – a margin that allows Lee and her team to dub the treatment “noninferior.”

Related blog posts:

Bryce Canyon

Bryce Canyon.  This is where I was told to beware of ‘poison rock’ —  one drop can kill you

3 thoughts on “Fecal Transplantation: “Frozen is as Good as Fresh””

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