[Exclusive parenteral nutrition. Results in 45 acute exacerbations of Crohn's disease (author's transl)].

Exclusive parenteral nutrition (EPN) was used in severe acute exacerbations of Crohn's disease, on 36 occasions for an acute episode during the course on the disease, in 8 in preparation for surgery and twice for digestive fistulae. The mean duration of EPN was of 33 days. Calorie intake was 65 to 74 cal/kg/d, the nitrogen part varying from 9 to 17 g/d. Lipids accounted for 40 to 60% of the total carbohydrate-lipid calorie intake in order to avoid fatty infiltration of the liver. Complications which occur, above all at the beginning of treatment, and due in part to insertion of the catheter and secondly to metabolic problems, have since been corrected. There was a weight gain of 5.78 +/- 1.1 kg, an increase in plasma albumin of 6.1 +/- 1.5 g/l and a return to normal in the number and weight of stools. In terms of the course of the disease, EPN offered excellent preparation for surgery and remission or stabilisation of acute exacerbations in young forms of the disease, in particularly with colonic involvement.