A comparative analysis of corticosteroids and exclusive enteral nutrition induction therapy in children with small bowel Crohn’s disease: results of two prospective cohorts
摘要
Corticosteroids (CS) and exclusive enteral nutrition (EEN) are effective induction therapies for pediatric Crohn’s disease (CD), but comparative studies evaluating long-term outcomes in small bowel CD are lacking. Children (2–18 years) with newly diagnosed small bowel CD involving the ileum prospectively enrolled in the multicenter Canadian CIDsCaNN or European PIBD-SETQuality inception cohorts receiving CS or EEN induction treatment were evaluated longitudinally. The primary outcome was sustained steroid-free remission (SSFR) at 1 year. Secondary outcomes included changes in height z-scores, time-to-first-biologic and time-to-luminal-resection. Results were confirmed after propensity score matching (PSM). In total, 208 children (61% CIDsCaNN, 39% PIBD-SETQuality) treated with CS (n = 60) or EEN (n = 148) were eligible for analysis. Baseline clinical characteristics were comparable. Immunomodulator monotherapy and anti-TNF-based regimens were implemented as maintenance therapy in 64% and 22%, respectively, following EEN induction and in 75% and 15% following CS induction (p = 0.51). At 1 year, SSFR was achieved in 48% [23/48] in CS vs. 37% [46/124] in EEN (p = 0.19). Delta height z-scores at 1 year were comparable (− 0.05 [IQR − 0.23 to 0.21] with CS vs. + 0.01 [IQR − 0.18 to 0.25] with EEN, p = 0.26). Time to first biologic (39% [CS] vs. 50% [EEN] at 1 year) and time to luminal resection (6% [CS] vs. 11% [EEN] at 1 year) were similar. In the PSM cohort of 114 children (75 EEN, 39 CS), the RR (95% CI) for SSFR with CS (1.46 [0.86–2.49]) was comparable to that of the unmatched cohort (1.29 [0.89–1.88]).
Conclusions: CS and EEN induction therapy demonstrate comparable effectiveness in pediatric small bowel CD, supporting the importance of shared decision-making.
Trial registration: The PIBD-SETQuality inception cohort was registered under trial registration number NCT03571373 (clinicaltrials.gov). The CIDsCaNN Network was registered under trial registration number NCT02308917 (clinicaltrials.gov).