Frederick Gandolfo, MD, penned a column for Gastroenterology & Endoscopy on the possible use of frozen stool in treating Clostridium difficile.
Here's what you should know.
1. Providers have used frozen oral capsules successfully in the past.
2. In a study of 20 patients, an oral dose resolved 70 percent of patients' diarrhea symptoms after their first treatment.
3. Physicians treated the non-responders to a second round of treatment raising the overall success rate to 90 percent.
4. There was another study where 1,322 patients had frozen stool delivered during colonoscopy, which touted an 87 percent clinical cure rate, although it's not specified how many rounds of treatment donors went through.
The aforementioned study also noted the study's authors are employees of OpenBiome, the company that produces frozen donor stool.
5. Dr. Gandolfo concludes frozen stool is an "excellent" alternative.