The Efficacy and Safety of Microbiota Transplantation Combined With Prebiotics for Treatment of Functional Constipation

Chronic constipation is a common gastrointestinal disorder with a global prevalence of approximately 15%, severely impacting daily life and quality of life. It also increases the mortality rate from hypertension, cardiovascular diseases, and ischemic stroke, and is closely related to the incidence of colorectal cancer, making it a major chronic disease that seriously threatens people's health and quality of life. With the increasing aging population and lifestyle factors such as sedentary behavior and low-fiber diets, the incidence of functional constipation is gradually rising. Traditional treatment of chronic constipation mainly relies on various types of laxatives, which have significant side effects with long-term use and relatively high treatment costs, while surgical treatment has limited patient acceptance. Gut microbiota is closely related to intestinal motility, and patients with chronic constipation often have gut microbiota dysbiosis, with significant differences in gut microbiota diversity and colonic mucosal microbiota structure compared to healthy individuals. In recent years, more and more studies have found that intestinal microbiota-based therapies such as probiotics, prebiotics, synbiotics, postbiotics, and fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) can effectively prevent and treat chronic constipation. FMT, as a method to reshape the gut microbiota, has been widely used in many centers at home and abroad, for diseases including inflammatory bowel disease, irritable bowel syndrome, autism, and obesity. The overall adverse reaction rate in clinical applications is approximately 3%, mainly consisting of abdominal discomfort (bloating, abdominal pain), diarrhea, and secondary intestinal infections or even bacteremia (rare). Our center has established a fecal microbiota transplantation center at Beijing Sixth Hospital within our medical alliance. We have currently performed nearly 100 cases of FMT for the treatment of IBD, autism, functional bowel disease