Continuous elemental enteral alimentation in the treatment of children and adolescents with Crohn's disease.

Ten pediatric patients, aged 8.5-19 years, with active symptomatic Crohn's disease, received a three-week period of continuous elemental enteral alimentation with no other form of treatment. All patients in this study were selected according to the following criteria, which were applied consecutively: (1) newly diagnosed patients with no previous treatment for Crohn's disease, (2) disease activity index over 200, and (3) no complication requiring surgery. All patients experienced a clinical remission and improved their immunologic and nutritional status during the elemental enteral alimentation. The mean disease activity index for the whole group was 307.0 +/- 23.6 (range: 203 to 413) before and 69.2 +/- 11.4 (range: 15 to 114) after the feeding period. Significant increases in body weight, triceps skinfold, mid-arm circumference, serum transferrin and mean percentage of T lymphocytes were also observed. Following cessation of enteral alimentation, a small declining dose of prednisone was used during a one-year follow-up period. Eight of the ten patients were still in clinical remission three months after the feeding period and their nutritional status had continued to improve during that period of time.