Elemental diet therapy in the management of complicated Crohn's disease.

The purpose of this report was to study the types of complications of Crohn's disease which may benefit from the use of elemental diets. The elemental diet Vivonex was used in the management of patients with Crohn's disease with local complications but without nutritional deficiency. Sole treatment of this kind was found to be of value in promoting healing of perianal or anal ulceration and anal fissures; it was also of value in allowing subacute ileal obstruction to settle, thus postponing surgery and allowing better bowel and nutritional preparation for surgery. Patients with bile acid-induced diarrhoea associated with severe ileal Crohn's disease noted improvement in the diarrhoea on the elemental diet, and the treatment was also useful in reducing ileostomy output and helping ileostomy skin lesions to heal in a patient with severe skin excoriation related to leakage of excessive ileostomy fluid output.