Curbing our enthusiasm for fecal transplantation in ulcerative colitis

Abstract

Given the known dysbiosis of gut microflora in inflammatory bowel disease, there has been great enthusiasm about the potential for fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) as a treatment. This editorial accompanies a prospective series of five patients with ulcerative colitis who underwent FMT, but did not achieve remission. I discuss the important observations from this study and point out that the lack of clinical efficacy and observed side effects warrant caution in the ongoing pursuit of this treatment option.