Fig. 2

Flow chart of step-up FMT for steroid-dependent UC. The strategy includes three steps: 1 the initial FMT; 2 a second FMT after 1 week; 3 one short course of steroid therapy. Patients who fail to benefit from step 1 are advised to receive the second FMT. Patients who still had no response were switched to one-phase therapy using steroids. Withdrawal of corticosteroid started after 2–4 weeks of full dose of steroids. The patients who failed to benefit from each step could also choose biologic therapy or resumption of steroid therapy