A hospital in Wuxi, East China's Jiangsu Province, has recently attracted attention for asking for donations of feces from volunteers to treat a patient's intestinal tract disease. Photo: Screenshot of a video posted on Sina Weibo

A hospital in Wuxi, East China's Jiangsu Province, has recently attracted attention for asking for donations of feces from volunteers to treat a patient's intestinal tract disease, reported Toutiao News on Sunday.

The volunteers have to be aged between 20 and 30 and have a healthy lifestyle. Once selected, their feces will be used to extract healthy bacteria after receiving special treatment from doctors, and will then be transplanted into the patient's intestinal tract. 

Jin Yan, a doctor from the gastroenterology department of the hospital, said the process is similar to bone marrow and liver transplants. 

"The only difference is that the transplant technology of feces bacteria involves a transplant of an internal environment of the intestinal tract," she said. 

Jin noted that the treatment can deal with lifelong diseases such as ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease, which are caused by intestinal flora imbalances and are difficult to cure. 

In a separate case, the hospital has recruited two donors for a patient suffering from ulcerative colitis.