Hyperalimentation in inflammatory bowel disease

The effect of total parenteral nutrition on a group of thirty-four patients with inflammatory bowel disease over the past three and a half years was reviewed. Only patients in whom medical management had failed were included. Patients in whom the decision for surgery had been made and who were treated with total parenteral nutrition in an effort to prepare them for surgery were excluded. Of the group with Crohn's disease, those patients with small bowel involvement appeared to fare best; surgery was avoided in approximately 70 per cent of these admissions. Crohn's disease with colonic involvement had a less favorable prognosis, and 43 per cent of these patients underwent operation. Parenteral nutrition does not appear to affect the course of ulcerative colitis, as almost all patients in the group were treated by colectomy.