You are a nurse on a post-surgical ward. One of your patients is an elderly woman who has just had her gallbaldder removed. When you go into her room to check on her, you find that she has significant diarrhea, as well as fever and abdominal pain. You suspect that she has Clostridium difficile infection (CDI), and send a sample of her feces down to the hospital lab for analysis. The test result indicates that your patient does indeed have CDI. You make your patient comfortable and answer her questions about her illness.
-Your patient asks what treatment she will be given for the CDI. You explain that initially, she will be taken off all antibiotics. This may cure her by
A) allowing her own gut normal microbiota to recover and to outcompete the C. difficile.
B) strengthening her innate and adaptive immune responses against the Clostridium difficile.
C) destroying any endospores that the C. difficile may have produced.
D) destroying any endospores that the C. difficile may have produced AND strengthening her innate and adaptive immune responses against the Clostridium difficile.
E) increasing antibiotic sensitivity in the Clostridium difficile, thereby weakening the pathogen so that the person's own immune system gets effectively rid of it.

Question

You are a nurse on a post-surgical ward. One of your patients is an elderly woman who has just had her gallbaldder removed. When you go into her room to check on her, you find that she has significant diarrhea, as well as fever and abdominal pain. You suspect that she has Clostridium difficile infection (CDI), and send a sample of her feces down to the hospital lab for analysis. The test result indicates that your patient does indeed have CDI. You make your patient comfortable and answer her questions about her illness.
-Your patient asks what treatment she will be given for the CDI. You explain that initially, she will be taken off all antibiotics. This may cure her by
A) allowing her own gut normal microbiota to recover and to outcompete the C. difficile.
B) strengthening her innate and adaptive immune responses against the Clostridium difficile.
C) destroying any endospores that the C. difficile may have produced.
D) destroying any endospores that the C. difficile may have produced AND strengthening her innate and adaptive immune responses against the Clostridium difficile.
E) increasing antibiotic sensitivity in the Clostridium difficile, thereby weakening the pathogen so that the person's own immune system gets effectively rid of it.

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Taking the patient off antibiotics will allow her own gut microbiota to recover and outcompete the C. difficile, restoring normal gut function. This is because antibiotics disrupt the balance of normal gut microbiota, allowing C. difficile to overgrow and cause disease. By stopping antibiotics, the gut microbiota can recover, which can help to control the C. difficile infection. The other options are not correct because they do not accurately reflect the mechanism by which recovery from CDI occurs.

You Are a Nurse on a Post-Surgical Ward