Fecal Matter Transplants A Growing Treatment Option For Sufferers Of Gastrointestinal Illnesses

They’re not as ubiquitous as blood or sperm banks, but another kind of biological substance also sits in cold storage ready to treat desperately ill or ailing patients. In Pittsburgh, the use of stool banks for fecal transplants is on the rise.

A fecal transplant is exactly what it sounds like.

“It is actually taking stool from a healthy donor and putting it into the colon, via a colonoscopy, of somebody who’s been having what we call refractory C. Diff Colitis,” said Meredith Wisniewski, chief physician assistant with the Allegheny Center for Digestive Health. “Which means they’ve taken antibiotics, (and) they are not clearing the infection. Therefore, this would be the next step.”

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