MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Jasmohan S. Bajaj, M.D. Virginia Commonwealth University Associate Professor Department of Internal Medicine Division of Gastroenterology MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Hepatic encephalopathy is a devastating complication of cirrhosis, which often recurs despite standard of care therapy with lactulose and rifaximin. This has a basis in an altered gut milieu therefore we need to change that in a more meaningful way to help patients. This was an FDA-monitored Phase I safety study of Fecal microbiome transfer (FMT) using a rationally-derived donor compared to standard of care. We found that FMT was safe and was associated with lower all-cause and hepatic encephalopathy-related hospitalizations over 5 months compared to standard of care. (more…)