The Digestion Blog

Those who develop Clostridium difficile along with their Inflammatory Bowel Disease may have a harder time treating it with Vancomycin.

A review study of 101 patients who had an Inflammatory Bowel Disease of one kind or another found that Clostridium difficile was more likely to occur in those treated with the antibiotic vancomycin compared to those treated with another antibiotic, metronidazole or a combination of both. Vancomycin goes by the brand name Vancocin while metronidazole is also known as Flagyl.

The review study showed a recurrence rate of almost 40%(39.4%) in those who took vancomycin compared to 14.5% in those who took metronidazole & 13.3% in those who took a combination of both. No obvious differences were found between patients & the vast majority(89%) were on immunosupressive drugs of some sort. Steroid use does seem to play a role as reinfection rates were approximately twice as high, 32% vs 15.7%,  for those receiving a steroidal treatment. Continue reading “Clostridium difficile Recurrence Higher For IBD Patients Treated With Vancomycin” »

Slate.com is doing a story on fecal transplantation:

“Then [Ruth] met Lawrence Brandt, a gastroenterologist at the Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx who believed he had developed a procedure to cure people of recurrent c. diff infections: fecal transplant. Brandt has been inserting feces into his patients for a decade now and claims to be solving their problems nearly 100 percent of the time. If his method really works—and he’s not the only doctor who believes that it does—then we may have found a viable, if weird, solution to a serious problem. C. diff infects 250,000 Americans each year and killed more than 20,000 from 1999 to 2004.”

At least the idea might be getting a little bit more mainstream. Maybe some day not only will we have blood banks, but “poo banks” teaming with healthy probiotics flora. Luckily there is already a “sciency name” to mask the “sinister truth” of the procedure: Human Probiotic Infusion. “Hey bob, where you going?” – “Oh, just doin’ my part, heading down to the Human Probiotic Infusion bank”.

If you want to get in contact with Dr. Brandt here is his information:

Advanced Endoscopy Center
5500 Broadway Suite A
Bronx, NY 10463
Phone: (866) 633-8255
Fax: (718) 548-8900