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Comment by smallnix | Hacker News Reader

Imagine the factor overlooked is the nasty but nutritional hospital food they got when receiving the transplant (assuming they got hospitalized).

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Doesn't seem like something that would require an inpatient stay.

In my experience (instant cure for recurrent c. diff) a fecal transplant is easier and simpler than a colonoscopy, which themselves are easy enough to be outpatient.

> [...] the treatment, which involved a bowel cleanse and daily transplants of fecal microbiota over a period of seven to eight weeks

Maybe I'm misinterpreting what the process of that daily transplant looked like, but I expect they ate a not insignificant amount of hospital food if there were 7-8 weeks of daily treatments.

I didn't realize it was such a protracted process, but even if it's a long series of daily treatment, they aren't going to admit you for that if it can be done outpatient. You will be admitted if it's a risky enough procedure that it requires extended/overnight observation. If you can safely go home and come back the next day that is what they will ask you to do.

Ya, the word "transplants" here seems to mean something very different than you're interpreting it as.

This isn't a hospital procedure like an organ transplant. It's material placed into the recipients colon through an enema, nasogastric tube or possibly even just taking some pills.

So it might range from done at home to done during a 30 minute visit to a clinic.

I know it's nothing on the scale of an organ transplant, but (other than pills) those things would still lead to the patients being at the hospital. And with frequent enough visits to a hospital, you would probably eat at least some meals there. That's all I meant (and said).

I would expect any of those to be possible in a doctor's office.

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