IRCCS Sant’Orsola makes history with pediatric microbiota transplant
In a groundbreaking medical breakthrough, the IRCCS Sant’Orsola polyclinic has successfully carried out a pediatric microbiota transplant on a 3-year-old child, making him the youngest in Europe and the second worldwide to undergo this type of intervention.
The child, who was brought to Italy from the Serbian Republic in Bosnia to receive treatment for acute myeloid leukemia, experienced complications following a stem cell transplant from his mother. The child suffered from “host rejection” or GvHD, a potentially fatal post-transplant pathology. After two months of hospitalization and multiple immunosuppressive therapies, the medical team at Sant’Orsola decided to attempt a microbiota transplantation, a practice that is still not widely used, especially among pediatric patients.
The results of the procedure were nothing short of miraculous. Dr. Riccardo Masetti of the Pediatric Oncology of Sant’Orsola stated, “not only was he cured of GvHD, but the symptoms of leukemia have regressed and there is no evidence of it to date. After the first infusion of microbiota, the situation immediately improved, and we decided to proceed with a second one to consolidate the result. The symptoms completely regressed, and the remaining immunosuppressive therapy was gradually reduced. Today the child has returned home with his family.”
Professor John Barbara, director of Gastroenterology and head of the Microbiota Transplant Center at IRCCS, explained, “We agreed to treat the child with a microbiota transplant based on numerous international studies, including those conducted at the IRCCS, which confirm the enormous potential of this procedure on complex pathologies. We believed we had confirmation of its validity in this procedure, carried out in very few other cases in the world.”
This groundbreaking success paves the way for the potential use of microbiota transplants in treating complex medical conditions, and highlights the expertise and innovation at the IRCCS Sant’Orsola polyclinic.