Seattle Children’s Studies Fecal Transplants As Cure For Bowel Disease

Fecal transplant: It may sound gross, but in Dr. David Suskind's view, it offers hope for one of the biggest public health challenges in the world.

The FDA has lifted some restrictions on the intriguing treatment for the deadly intestinal bug commonly known as C. diff. And now, Seattle Children’s Hospital is studying the same treatment for inflammatory bowel disease.

The process involves taking feces from a healthy person’s intestines and transplanting that into the patient’s gut.

KUOW's Bill Radke spoke with Suskind, an associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Washington and pediatric gastroenterologist at Seattle Children’s Hospital, about the treatment, technically called “fecal microbiota transplant.”