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Gastroenterology
New Clinic at Mayo Targets Tenacious Infection
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Clostridium difficile, or C. diff as it's often referred to, has reached an epidemic state. It's the most common infectious cause of diarrhea in hospitals and can lead to life-threatening complications. Now, Mayo Clinic is opening a C. difficile clinic at its Rochester, Minn., campus and gastroenterologist Sahil Khanna, M.B.B.S. (sah-Heel Kahn'-ah), says the new facility will be able to offer patient care by experts experienced in dealing with the infection.
Journalists: B-roll, animation and sound bites with Dr. Khanna are available in the downloads.
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/// Sound Bite: Improve outcomes (Sahil Khanna, M.B.B.S., Mayo Clinic Gastroenterologist)
"C. difficile is a hospital acquired infection that's now out in the community. It's getting more severe and harder to treat. We think a clinic that's dedicated to the management of these patients, that's staffed by experienced physicians and a whole team of study coordinators, nurses and researchers in the microbiome field who have a vested interest in C. diff, will help improve patient outcomes." TRT :23
(Journalists: VO b-roll of FMT procedure)
C. diff infections often occur after antibiotic treatments have destroyed the healthy bacteria in the digestive tract. Among the innovative therapies available at Mayo's C. diff clinic is a fecal microbial transplant, during which the healthy bacteria from a donor are reintroduced. The transplant has been shown to halt the cycle of recurrent infections for more than 80 percent of C. diff patients.
/// Sound Bite: FMT procedure (Sahil Khanna, M.B.B.S., Mayo Clinic Gastroenterologist)
"Up to 5 percent of all those who get C. difficile infection will have multiple recurrences due to the inability to restore the gut flora. We in the C. diff clinic have expertise in performing a procedure called fecal transplant where we can restore the gut flora by donor stools from a healthy person. We believe this can disrupt the cycle of recurrences and restore the healthy microbiome and healthy bacteria within the gut." TRT :23
Dr. Khanna says patients of the new C. diff clinic will also have the opportunity to participate in clinical trials of new treatments.
