Stool Transplant in Pediatric Patients With Recurring C. Difficile Infection

The incidence of C. difficile infection (CDI) has alarmingly increased over the past several years and the affected population has expanded to include those previously at low risk, such as children. The annual US financial burden associated with this infection is great and estimated to exceed $1.8 billion. C. difficile infection arises when the gut microbial ecology is disrupted during interventions notorious for perturbing the delicate microbial balance. A well known and common example is the use of antibiotics. Fecal microbiota transplant (FMT) has been introduced several decades ago in an attempt to restore the gut microbial balance. To this date there have been a great number of reports of success in eliminating recurrent C. difficile infections and restoring the gut microbial profile to resemble that of the healthy donor. While over 300 cases have been described in the literature, there has been no pediatric controlled studies performed to compare its efficacy to placebo. Therefore, there is a strong need to determine their safety and efficacy in pediatric randomized controlled studies. The investigators hypothesize that children with recurrent C. difficile infection will respond to fecal transplant therapy which will modify their gut microbial profile. The investigators propose a randomized, placebo controlled, pilot study of fecal microbial transplant in children with recurrent C. difficile infection to evaluate the safety and efficacy of fecal microbial transplant in children in preventing recurrent C. difficile infection. The investigators anticipate that fecal microbial transplant in children with recurrent C. difficile infection will be safe and efficacious and will provide these children with a great alternative to a disease that is difficult to treat. Results of this study will establish the major role of the gut microbiome in this disease and demonstrate the viability of gut microbial transplant in recipients.