Mixed Bag: How C. Difficile Can Cause Pouchitis

Excerpt

Clostridium difficile infection (CDI), a major cause of healthcare associated infections, has become a consistent frustration of hospital-based clinicians. Worldwide, the highest rates of hospital-associated CDI occur in North America, where an estimated 7.14 of 1000 hospital admissions are complicated by CDI [1]. Clostridium difficile is a fastidious spore-forming gram-positive anaerobic bacterium that causes infections ranging from mild diarrhea to fulminant colitis. One of the strongest risk factors for CDI is prior antibiotic exposure resulting presumably from the disruption of the intestinal microbiota, although a number of other risk factors have been identified. …