C. difficile infection

C. difficile infection care at Mayo Clinic

Mayo Clinic specializes in treating people with difficult cases of C. difficile infection who haven't responded to standard medical treatments or who have developed complications such as an inflamed colon. The Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at Mayo Clinic in Minnesota and Florida has C. difficile clinics that specialize in treating people with C. difficile infection. The C. difficile clinic in Arizona is in the Department of Infectious Diseases.

Your Mayo Clinic care team

Mayo Clinic uses a multidisciplinary team approach to evaluation and management of C. difficile infection. The team includes doctors, nurses, study coordinators and laboratory personnel. Doctors who specialize in digestive and infectious diseases work closely with laboratory medicine specialists and scientists specializing in the gut microbiome and individualized medicine to diagnose and treat your condition.

Advanced diagnosis and treatment

For recurrent or stubborn C. difficile infections, fecal microbiota transplant (FMT) has been performed at Mayo Clinic with an overall high success rate. FMT therapy involves putting healthy donors' stools into people with C. difficile infections. Mayo Clinic performs extensive testing of donors and recipients before doing the procedure and offers the choice of family or standard donors. Because donor testing often isn't covered by insurance, Mayo Clinic has a standard donor pool to help cut the cost to potential recipients. Mayo Clinic also participates in clinical trials that are studying enema and capsule formulations for FMT.

Expertise and rankings

Mayo Clinic has about 150 digestive disease specialists (gastroenterologists) on staff, one of the largest such groups in the world. Because of the complexity of digestive diseases, the specialty is divided into nine subspecialty groups.

Mayo Clinic resources include the latest in endoscopic equipment and techniques. Using these minimally invasive procedures, doctors insert tubes through the mouth, nose or rectum to examine and treat problems of the digestive tract.

Locations, travel and lodging

Mayo Clinic has major campuses in Phoenix and Scottsdale, Arizona; Jacksonville, Florida; and Rochester, Minnesota. The Mayo Clinic Health System has dozens of locations in several states.

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Costs and insurance

Mayo Clinic works with hundreds of insurance companies and is an in-network provider for millions of people.

In most cases, Mayo Clinic doesn't require a physician referral. Some insurers require referrals or may have additional requirements for certain medical care. All appointments are prioritized on the basis of medical need.

Learn more about appointments at Mayo Clinic.

Please contact your insurance company to verify medical coverage and to obtain any needed authorization prior to your visit. Often, your insurer's customer service number is printed on the back of your insurance card.