Hello everyone and thank you for downloading this month's episode on the EM Clerkship podcast. This month, Isabelle got hit with yet another GI catastrophe, but I will say that she waited through that shit like a champ. And yes, pun intended. Today we are going to be talking about Clustridioides, diffisile, also known as C-DIF.

The fun part about these episodes is that I also learn a lot when I make them.

I basically end up doing miniature deep dives on clinical questions that have been bugging me on shift,

like, are anti-motility agents contraindicated in C-DIF?

Which, stay tuned for that answer.

But sometimes the funnier thing is realizing everything I've forgotten from medical school

since transitioning to the clinical realm. Like for today's episode, I was very surprised to realize

that Clostridium is actually a gram-positive bacteria. And I'm sure there are med students listening to this,

like, duh, did you ever even do sketchy micro? But alas, it does fade quickly, my friends.

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So let's get into the stinky truth of it all with C-Div colitis. As mentioned before,

claustridioides difficile is a gram-positive spore-forming bacteria that produces strong exotoxins. And these exotoxins

destroy the gut epithelium as well as the body's immune cells, and thus no bueno. It is an

infection that is transmitted fecal orally, which means it usually involves a failure of hand hygiene at

some point.

C. diffusile infection can occur in the absence of any risk factors.

However, the major risk factors to look out for are antibiotic use within the last 30 days,

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