Patients with the hospital superbug C. difficile could one day be treated with transplants of other people's faeces, scientists say.
C. diff is a deadly and contagious infection that causes diarrhoea and other intestinal problems and that can occur in patients who are taking antibiotics.
Researchers at Henry Ford Hospital in the US studied 49 people who were treated for C. diff between May 2010 and June 2012.
Patients were treated with donated faeces from a healthy relative - an experimental treatment called intestinal microbiota transplantation (IMT) whereby the healthy stool is mixed with tap water and administered via a nasogastric tube or colonoscopy.
The researchers found that 43 of the 49 patients recovered quickly after treatment, with none experiencing any complications in the following three months.
Senior study author Dr Mayur Ramesh said: 'More than 90 per cent of the patients in our study were cured of their C.diff infection.
'This treatment is a viable option for patients who are not responding to conventional treatment and who want to avoid surgery.'
The findings were presented at the annual meeting of the Infectious Diseases Society of America.
Figures show that the number of C. diff cases reported across England fell by 35 per cent between 2007-08 and 2008-09.