Fecal microbiota transplantation for patients with ulcerative colitis: a systematic review and meta-analysis of...

Fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) has been shown to restore gut microbiome composition with an acceptable safety profile. FMT in inflammatory bowel disease, specifically ulcerative colitis (UC), has been investigated. We aimed to assess the efficacy of FMT in inducing UC remission.

PubMed, Scopus, Google Scholar, and clinicaltrials.gov were searched for randomized control trials that assessed FMT in inducing UC remission. The primary outcome was combined clinical and endoscopic remission. Secondary outcomes were clinical remission, endoscopic remission, post-treatment overall adverse events, and colitis. Sensitivity analyses, meta-regression, bias assessment, and grading of certainty of evidence were performed.

A total of 14 studies including 600 patients (55.8% male; median age 40.7 years) were assessed. FMT was used in 299 patients and associated with significantly higher odds of combined clinical and endoscopic remission (OR 2.25, 95% CI 1.54, 3.3; p < 0.0001), clinical remission (OR 2.02, 95% CI 1.4, 2.93; p = 0.0002), and endoscopic remission (OR 1.95, 95% CI 1.17, 3.28; p = 0.011). The odds of post-treatment overall adverse events (OR 1.24, 95% CI 0.79, 1.95; p = 0.34) and colitis (OR 0.85, 95% CI 0.52, 1.93; p = 0.512) were similar between groups. Compared with baseline, FMT was more effective when biologics (OR 2.71), steroids (OR 2.27), or methotrexate (OR 3.07) were used as pre-FMT treatment. Oral delivery of FMT (OR 3.15) and pooled donors (OR 3.32) led to higher odds of remission. On meta-regression, pooled donors and methotrexate pre-treatment were associated with an increased likelihood of remission.

FMT is promising in inducing UC remission. Administration of medical treatments before FMT may help achieve higher remission rates. Current evidence shows that oral delivery of FMT and multidonor FMT may confer better results.