Namita Majumder, a 70-year-old Baruipur resident, suffering from severe diarrhea, has successfully undergone fecal microbiota transplant (FMT). The procedure, also known as stool transplant, has been performed for the first time in eastern India at the Indian Institute of Liver and Digestive Sciences (IILDS), Sonarpur. The procedure is performed in very few hospitals across the country, including at AIIMS, Delhi.

Majumder was admitted to a local nursing home three months back with complaints of severe diarrhea and passing of blood with stool. Following no improvement after a month of hospitalization, the patient’s family approached the Sonarpur institute. At IILDS, she was diagnosed with refractory Clostridium difficile infection.

Dr Abhijit Chowdhury, Secretary, IILDS, stated that the most potent antibiotics failed to yield results and the patient’s condition continued to deteriorate. Therefore, they took up the challenging and innovative procedure, called FMT. The patient recovered enough to go home after three weeks.

FMT is a procedure where fecal bacteria from a healthy donor are transplanted into the recipient.

The transplant was done on December 20 and Majumder was discharged on January 8, and is recovering now.

Dr Dipankar Mondal at IILDS mentioned that the good organisms introduced through the procedure of FMT overpower the bad organisms in the gut, thus putting the defence mechanism back on track. It represents a viable option when antibiotics fail.

A donor is usually chosen from the patient’s family. A healthy adult, below 60 years of age, who does not have infections and any communicable diseases like HIV, hepatitis A, B, C and E, and any stool infection, can be a donor.

Dr Partha Sarathi Mukherjee, Executive Director, IILDS, said that they could pull off this innovative procedure in just about one and a half years of starting in-patient services on account of the young talented doctors who are deeply involved in research. (TNN)