MDNews - Long Island

FECAL MICROBIOTA TR ANSPL ANTATION (FMT) VIA NA SOGA STRIC FEEDING TUBE (NGT) IS A CHE APER YE T SIMIL ARLY EFFECTIVE TRE ATMENT ME THOD FOR RECURRENT CLOSTRIDIUM DIFFICILE INFECTION (CDI) IN CHILDREN WHEN COMPARED WITH FMT VIA COLONOSCOPY OR NA SODUODENAL TUBE, A STUDY FROM CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL COLOR ADO HA S FOUND. THE INCIDENCE OF CDI is increasing in what were formerly considered low-risk populations, according to studies in The Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal and Clinical Infectious Diseases. These groups include children in both hospital and community settings. "In the past, it was thought that CDI mostly occurred after antibiotic treatments wiped out good fl ora [in the gut]," says Mark Bartlett, MD, Consultant in Pediatric Gastroenterology at the Mayo Clinic. "We never thought you could acquire it from another person or the community." While researchers are still speculating about the reason for the increase in CDI — current hypotheses include increased antibiotic resistance and the rise of more aggressive strains of C-diff — the search for new treatment options against recurrent and severe CDI has proved fruitful: FMT has emerged as the standard of care for both children and adults when antibiotics fail. LOWER COSTS "When we started our FMT program two years ago, many insur- ance plans wouldn't cover FMT," says David Brumbaugh, MD, Digestive Health Institute physician at Children's Hospital Colorado and Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. "It was important for us to create a Treating Pediatric C-diff BY JOSH GARCIA A Cost-effective Approach to SPECIAL CLINICAL SECTION: PEDIATRICS 2 4

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