Nutrition and Crohn's Disease: An Overview
Malnutrition is common in Crohn's disease. Nutrition can be improved in patients with Crohn's disease by total parenteral nutrition (TPN) or enteral nutrition. TPN induces long term remission in over 50% of patients with Crohn's disease. Enteral nutrition is as effective, more economi...
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| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Wiley
1990-01-01
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| Series: | Canadian Journal of Gastroenterology |
| Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/1990/147234 |
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| Summary: | Malnutrition is common in Crohn's disease. Nutrition can be
improved in patients with Crohn's disease by total parenteral nutrition (TPN)
or enteral nutrition. TPN induces long term remission in over 50% of patients
with Crohn's disease. Enteral nutrition is as effective, more economical and less
hazardous than TPN. Enteral nutrition can be given as a polymeric or elemental
diet. Polymeric diets can be helpful by improving patient nutritional and clinical
status. Elemental diets have other advantages in that clinical improvement is not
only symptomatic. A controlled trial suggests it to be more effective than
polymeric diets in acute Crohn's disease. Four controlled studies have shown
elemental diets to be as effective as steroids in acute Crohn's disease. How an
elemental diet achieves this result is conjectural, but it is unlikely that its action
is solely nutritional, as the patient improves before nutritional parameters improve. Elemental diets contain glutamine and arginine, which have a direct effect
on intestinal mucosa and improve immune function. Patients with active
Crohn's disease have increased intestinal permeability; treatment with an
elemental diet improves the permeability defect. |
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| ISSN: | 0835-7900 |