EGESTA - Emergent GI Therapy for Severe, Complicated CDI Using Fecal Microbiota Transplant

The objectives/specific aims of this study are three-fold. First, the study seeks to evaluate the safety of fecal microbiota transplant (FMT) in patients with severe, complicated C. difficile infection (scCDI). Second, the study seeks to evaluate whether fecal microbiota transplant (FMT) can improve scCDI, with "improve" defined as either decreasing the severity of CDI, or by resolving the infection altogether. Third, the study seeks to further study the mechanism by which FMT improves the course of scCDI by performing 16S rRNA and ITS sequencing on pre-FMT and serial post-FMT stool samples in order to measure changes to bacterial and fungal microbiota as a consequence of CDI and FMT therapy. FMT material (hereafter referred to as FMTm) would be obtained from OpenBiome. FMTm is prepared from prescreened healthy donors. The hypothesis of the study is that FMT is a preferred salvage therapy for scCDI as compared to (1) ongoing, failing medical therapy with conventional antibiotics and (2) surgery. The standard of care treatment for scCDI is conventional antibiotics with either parenteral/oral metronidazole, and/or vancomycin provided in the form of oral and/or retention enemas. The reliability of these conventional antibiotics in the setting of scCDI is very unpredictable, and patients with CDI of this severity have a mortality rate that in some series is greater than 50%. It is against the mediocre historical record of these antibiotics that FMT would be tested in this highly moribund patient population. FMT would not be provided to patients with scCDI off protocol.