In the past few years, there has been a dramatic increase in frequency and severity of Clostridium difficile infection (CDI). This has resulted in an increase in the number of patients with severe CDI, as well as recurrent CDI. Recent data indicates that approximately 500,000 cases of CDI occur in the US per year, with approximately 15,000 deaths. Even after standard treatment with metronidazole and/or vancomycin, approximately 20% of patients experience recurrent CDI (RCDI) and, of those, 40-50% experience multiple recurrences, with ongoing diarrhea, weakness, weight loss and, sometimes, death. Therefore, alternative treatment modalities are required. One such treatment is fecal transplantation or fecal bacteriotherapy (FB). For CDI, fecal transplantation refers to the act of placing fecal material from a healthy "donor" into the gastrointestinal tract of an individual with CDI. It is believed that, in most instances, CDI occurs because a person's normal bacterial ecosystem has been altered, usually by prior antibiotic use.
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