Therapy

Why?

• It has no clear effect on recovery or need for surgery in active colitis ^d
• It is less effective than steroids at inducing remission in active Crohn's disease. ^a
• It tastes horrible - a fifth of patients on enteral nutrition are unable to tolerate the taste. ^a
• Elemental diets are not clearly better than non-elemental diets. ^a

Enteral nutrition leads to fewer remissions than steroids

Patient	Treatment	Comparison	Outcome	CER	OR (95% CI)	NNH (95% CI)
active Crohn's disease a	enteral nutrition	steroids	remission at 4-8 weeks	81%	0.35 (0.23 to 0.53)	5 (3 to 8)