While this is a small study of only 20 people, the researchers concluded that this type of treatment is indeed safe and can be beneficial in the long term, helping to cut down on the toxins that would otherwise lead to HE developing further.
Poop fix trial#
The trial run was made possible by a poop specimen identified at a donor bank - it matched the bacterial composition the study team was looking for, so they could prepare a batch of treatments. In particular, they wanted to add the beneficial Lachnospiraceae and Ruminococcaceae microbes, and remove the potentially poisonous Enterobacteriaceae bacteria from the gut – all of which have been linked to HE in the past. It's thought that a build up of toxins that the liver would normally remove leads to HE, and this is the way the researchers decided to tackle it. The brain damage the condition causes is sometimes irreversible, and in the worst cases, those with HE can slip into a coma and die. "These findings now need to be confirmed in a larger patient population." "We believe it confirms that FMT from a rationally selected donor was safe and associated with substantial long-term improvements in both clinical and cognitive outcomes in patients with cirrhosis and recurrent HE," says one of the researchers, Jasmohan Bajaj from Virginia Commonwealth University. Over the course of five months, HE patients who had been given the transplant were reporting fewer episodes and hospitalisations than those receiving standard treatment, and that's a promising development for this type of transplant. Hepatic encephalopathy develops in more than 40 percent of people with liver cirrhosis, and can cause problems with thinking, changes in personality, confusion, and forgetfulness, though symptoms can vary in their severity. In a study of 20 patients with liver cirrhosis and hepatic encephalopathy (HE) – brain issues that often go alongside cirrhosis – the 10 patients given a faecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) saw sustained improvements in cognitive health.