Noninvasive outpatient nutritional therapy in inflammatory bowel disease.

Twelve courses of outpatient nutritional therapy using a specific defined formula, Precision High Nitrogen Diet, were given orally to nine malnourished patients with active inflammatory bowel disease. The regimen was continued for a 2-month period on an outpatient basis. Patients had significant increases in weight, height, and nutritional status as evaluated by serum protein and albumin levels and anthropometric measurements of triceps and subscapular skinfold thickness. Patients with no alteration of pharmacologic therapy did not differ significantly from those with increases in pharmacologic therapy in any parameter evaluated. This regimen is an alternative to total parenteral nutrition and nasogastric delivery of defined formula in malnourished patients with active inflammatory bowel disease.