Forty-seven patients affected by Clostridium difficile-associated disease were treated orally with either vancomycin (patients hospitalized from February 1984 to February 1987) or teicoplanin (from March 1987 to December 1988). All patients given teicoplanin remained asymptomatic after discontinuation of treatment, and all but one were also cleared of C. difficile. In the vancomycin group, clinical symptoms recurred in 3 of 23 evaluable patients, and follow-up cultures were positive in another asymptomatic case.