Official websites use. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. Early endoscopic recurrence is frequent after intestinal resection for Crohn's disease.
Bacteria are involved, and probiotics may modulate immune responses to the intestinal flora. Here we tested the probiotic strain Lactobacillus johnsonii LA1 in this setting. This was a randomised, double blind, placebo controlled study. Endoscopic score was the maximal grade of ileal and colonic lesions. Analyses were performed primarily on an intent to treat basis. Ninety eight patients were enrolled 48 in the LA1 group. Per protocol analysis confirmed this result. Endoscopic score distribution did not differ significantly between the LA1 and placebo groups.
There were four clinical recurrences in the LA1 group and three in the placebo group. Keywords: Crohn's disease, randomised controlled trial, probiotics, lactobacillus. Here we report the results of a randomised placebo controlled trial designed to determine if LA1, given by mouth for a period of six months, could prevent or attenuate recurrent CD lesions after curative surgery.
CD was diagnosed on the basis of standard clinical, radiographic, endoscopic, and pathological criteria. When a diverting stomy had been necessary at the time of intestinal resection, the patient could be included under the same conditions after its closure. A subgroup of patients participated in an ancillary substudy designed to assess the pharmacokinetics of LA1 and its effect on the local flora and cytokine production. Inclusion criteria were slightly more restrictive for this subgroup: patients had to have undergone ileal or ileocolonic resection and not pure colonic resection and to have received no antibiotic treatment during the week before enrolment.
Finally, enrolment and treatment initiation had to occur three days before surgery in this subgroup. Patients who underwent total or subtotal colectomy, intestinal bypass or stricturoplasty, stomy, carcinoma resection, or abscess drainage were also not eligible.
