Improving the definition of stool banks to promote the widespread adoption of FMT

Key recommendations

Here are some of the 40 recommendations that they issued, aiming at promoting secure stool donation:

• Ensuring the protection of personal data;

• Only a gastroenterologist, a microbiologist or an infectious diseases specialist, with expertise in FMT, is eligible to be a stool bank director;

• Fecal suspensions are intended only for the treatment of CDI and for research, provided that the studies have been approved;

• Stool banks are under the control of their country's regulatory authorities;

• Fecal microbiota donation is voluntary, but a financial compensation is possible according to the country and applicable regulations;

• Donor recruitment is conducted based on a questionnaire that assesses all risk factors, and that needs to be filled out before each donation; inclusion criteria: being–ideally–less than 50 years old and be exempt of multidrug-resistant infections;

• Stool traceability is based on a unique bar code; the time between their collection and their storage at -80°C during a maximum of 2 years, should not exceed 6 hours;

• Finally, experts suggest that FMT indications should be extended to the most severe cases of CDI, as well as to children.