Frozen fecal matter is just as effective as fresh fecal matter when using fecal microbiota transplantation to treat Clostridium difficile infection, a clinical trial has shown, according to a WebMD report.
Here are four insights:
1. During the trial, researchers randomly assigned 232 C. diff patients to receive either a frozen or fresh fecal transplantation.
2. They found that the frozen samples cured 83.5 percent of patients within 13 weeks, whereas the fresh samples cured around 85 percent in that time.
3. They also found no serious side effects with either fresh or frozen fecal transplantation.
4. The findings are published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.