Long-term Safety of Fecal Microbiota Transplantations

Posted on by

S Saha et al. Gastroenterol 2021; 160: 1961-1969. Full text PDF: Long-term Safety of Fecal Microbiota Transplantation for Recurrent Clostridioides difficile Infection

In this prospective study (2012-2018) with 609 patients (median age 56 years), the authors studied long-term outcomes. Key findings:

  • At 1 year, 9.5% reported additional CDI episodes. Diarrhea occured in more than half of all patients, although it lasted for than a week in most patients.
  • Among 477 with long-term data, 188 patients post-FMT developed new medical conditions/symptoms.
  • Weight gain was reported by 46 patients (10.3%) post-FMT. In these patients, the median weight gained was 30 pounds (range, 10–70). Of these patients, 11 (23%) had
    preexisting obesity.
  • Approximately 3% of patients each reported new-onset diabetes mellitus and dyslipidemia,
    whereas 2.3% reported thyroid disease.
  • Gastrointestinal symptoms were the second most frequently reported (13.4%). New-onset IBS was reported by 4%, IBD by 0.3%, chronic diarrhea by 5.0%, and chronic constipation by 1.6% of patients.
  • Serious infections were reported by 11.8% of patients: CDI in 5.7%, Pneumonia in 4.5%, UTI in 1.8% and Sepsis in 1.2%. Median time to the infections was 29 months (range, 0–73) following FMT; only 1 patient reported an infection (CDI) within the first month after FMT.
  • No deaths were considered related to FMT
  • Limitation: no control group

My take (borrowed from authors): “FMT appears safe and effective, both in the
short-term and long-term. Several new medical conditions were reported post-FMT, in particular, weight gain and IBS.”

Related blog posts:

1 thought on “Long-term Safety of Fecal Microbiota Transplantations”

  1. Pingback: Looking at the Mycobiome to Distinguish Clostridium difficile Infection vs. Carriage | gutsandgrowth

Comments are closed.