On Friday 23 May at 14:00, Sara Ellegaard Paaske defends her PhD dissertation entitled "Faecal microbiota transplantation for clinical management of Clostridioides difficile infection".

Clostridioides difficile infection often affects older patients who have recently received antibiotics, which can damage the balance of bacteria in the gut. The infection can be life-threatening and is usually treated with more antibiotics, but the infection often recurs.

FMT is a treatment where stool from a carefully screened, healthy donor is transferred to the patient's gastrointestinal tract. FMT is already recommended for patients with repeated Clostridioides difficile infections, but little is known about how well it works for first or second infections.

Through four studies, this project explores when FMT should be used and how to use it as effectively as possible. Two studies look at FMT for first or second infections and show that FMT is more effective than antibiotics alone. A third study investigates how different treatment strategies, such as FMT dose and method of delivery, affect outcomes. The final study aims to improve FMT effectiveness by refining the FMT dosing and excluding donors who are less effective. Together, these findings offer new insight into how to better treat patients with Clostridioides difficile infection.

The summary is written by the PhD student.

The defence is public and takes place in auditorium C114-101, Aarhus University Hospital, Entrance C. Please see the press release for more information. 

Contact

PhD student Sara Ellegaard Paaske
Mail: sarana@rm.dk 
Phone: +45 61 31 42 65

Read full press release