Newswise — ROCHESTER, Minnesota: November is the Clostridium difficile awareness month ( C. difficile ), which provides a time to focus on making people more aware of the prevention and treatment of Clostridium difficile infections .
" C. difficile is a bacterial infection that produces symptoms ranging from diarrhea to fatal inflammation of the colon," explains Dr. Darrell Pardi , a gastroenterologist at Mayo Clinic.
"Although C. difficile usually affects the elderly hospitalized or housed long in health care facilities, studies show an increase in the rates of C. difficile infection among younger, healthy people with no history of antibiotic use. nor exposure to health care facilities, "adds the doctor.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, C. difficile infections in the United States increased by 8 percent between 2015 and 2016.
Dr. Pardi says that doctors should suspect C. difficile in anyone with ongoing diarrhea and who took antibiotics in the last two months, or when the diarrhea begins a few days after a hospitalization. In these cases, doctors usually request a stool test to check for the presence of C. difficile or the toxin produced by the bacteria. Sometimes an imaging test, such as an abdominal x-ray or a CT scan, is done to check for complications such as a thickening of the colon wall, an expansion of the bowel, or a hole in the lining of the colon.
When doctors diagnose C. difficile, the first step is for the patient to stop the antibiotics that triggered the infection, says Dr. Pardi, and then, depending on the severity of the infection, doctors may recommend treatments, including another antibiotic to prevent a greater development of C. difficile. Rarely, patients with sepsis, organ failure, or inflammation of the lining of the abdominal wall should be operated on.
Dr. Pardi notes that up to 20 percent of people treated for C. difficile may have recurrence because the initial infection never happened or because they re-infect with a different strain of the bacteria. The risk increases to 60 percent when someone suffers more than 2 events. The doctor explains that patients with two or more recurrences are considered high risk and that their treatment could include the following:
- Prolonged cycles of antibiotics
- Transplant of intestinal flora to restore healthy intestinal bacteria by placing stools from another healthy person (donor) through an endoscope or a probe. Studies show that the success rate of intestinal flora transplantation for C. difficile exceeds 90 percent.
- Intravenous infusion of an antibiotic called bezlotoxumab may also help in certain situations.
Mayo Clinic has clinics for C. difficile in its offices in Rochester (Minnesota), Scottsdale (Arizona) and Jacksonville (Florida). Dr. Pardi and other Mayo Clinic experts are available for interviews with journalists about the symptoms, diagnosis and treatments of Clostridium difficile.
For more information, contact Sharon Theimer, Mayo Clinic Public Relations, 507-284-5005, email: [email protected]
###
Information about Mayo Clinic
Mayo Clinic is a nonprofit organization dedicated to clinical practice, education and research that offers expert and comprehensive care to all who need to regain health. Find out more about Mayo Clinic . Visit the Mayo Clinic Information Network .
RSS