What is the most disgusting medical treatment you've ever heard of?

Whatever it is, I’ve got you beat. The latest edition of the Medical Letter says, for the treatment of C. difficile infection, “Fecal flora restoration by administration of stool through an NG tube, colonoscopy or enema has had reported efficacy of about 90% in preventing recurrent CDI, but randomized trials are lacking.”

Let me translate that into English. C. difficile is a highly infectious bacteria that causes a severe colitis and is associated with antibiotics administration. It’s treated by a couple of specific antibiotics, but can be resistant to treatment. For recurrent C. difficile infection, what this article is saying, is that you take someone else’s feces, puree it up, and administer it through a nasogastric tube a tube put from your nose into your stomach.

Now, believe it or not, I’ve heard of this before, but it was actually colonic administration of someone else’s feces. And, believe it or not, it works. But this is the first time I’ve heard of administration into the stomach.