Banking feces: a new frontier for public blood banks?

Simon Mark Dahl Jørgensen, Christian Lodberg Hvas, Jens Frederik Dahlerup, Susan Mikkelsen, Lars Ehlers, Lianna Hede Hammeken, Tine Rask Licht, Martin Iain Bahl, Christian Erikstrup

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20 Citations (Scopus)
59 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) is an effective treatment for recurrent Clostridioides difficile infection and is potentially beneficial in other microbiota-related disorders. The provision of FMT in routine clinical practice requires an extensive infrastructure that is reliant on voluntary donors. Alongside an increasing demand for FMT, the logistic barriers of a large-scale donor-dependent operation and the difficulties among health authorities to regulate FMT limit the dissemination of sustainable FMT services. Blood centers are large organizations that handle a multitude of donor-dependent operations on a daily basis. Blood and feces share many of the same dependencies, and feces may present a new opportunity for the blood services to handle. In this paper, we describe how an FMT service may be established and embedded within the blood service infrastructure, and we explain the benefits of using blood donors as feces donors. We further explore the current indications of FMT, the challenges related to the lack of legislation, and the future perspectives for blood banks to meet a new and increasing demand.

Original languageEnglish
JournalTransfusion
Volume59
Issue9
Pages (from-to)2776-2782
Number of pages7
ISSN0041-1132
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2019

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