Elemental diet therapy plays a significant role in preventing surgical recurrence of Crohn's disease in the era of biologics.

PURPOSE Most patients with Crohn's disease (CD) experience surgical recurrence. In this era of novel therapies, we conducted this study to clarify which treatments effectively decrease the risk of surgical recurrence in patients with CD. METHODS The subjects of this retrospective study were 37 patients with CD. We created cumulative surgery rate curves and performed univariate and multivariate analyses. RESULTS Univariate analysis revealed that patients who consumed an elemental diet (ED; ≥ 900 kcal/day), anti-tumor necrosis factor-alpha, and thiopurines had a significantly better prognosis than those who did not (p = 0.011, p = 0.025, and p = 0.0080, respectively). Multivariate analysis revealed that ED therapy and thiopurines were independent significant factors for controlling surgical recurrence (p = 0.046 and p = 0.032, respectively). Additional analyses showed that the most promising ED therapeutic dose was ≥ 1200 kcal/day, while an ED therapeutic dose of ≥ 900 kcal/day was acceptable. CONCLUSIONS Although univariate analyses revealed that all three treatment strategies had significant effects on surgical recurrence in patients with CD, multivariate analysis revealed that only ED therapy was significantly associated with surgical recurrence rates. Thus, ED therapy plays an important role in the management of CD, even in the era of biological therapies.