Using frozen material for fecal transplants is as effective as fresh material in curing people with chronic diarrhea caused by recurrent infection with Clostridium difficile bacteria, according to a small new study, WebMD reported.

Each year in the United States, C. difficile causes 250,000 infections requiring hospitalization and 14,000 deaths. Fecal transplants treat C. difficile infection by restoring the normal balance of intestinal microbes, the researchers explained.

Previous research has shown that fecal transplants with fresh stool have a success rate of about 90 percent. However, recruiting and screening potential donors of fecal material can be costly and time consuming, the study authors note.

Having a supply of frozen, prescreened donor stool could make fecal transplant available to a much larger number of patients, according to the Massachusetts General Hospital team conducting the study.

The pilot study included 20 patients (three were children) who'd had either three or more bouts of mild to moderate C. difficile infection where antibiotic treatment failed, or had two severe bouts that required hospitalization.

They received frozen stool through the standard colonoscopy method or through a tube inserted in the nose and moved down the throat into the stomach. The treatment success rate was 90 percent, which matches that of transplants using fresh stool, according to the study published online in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases.