Exclusive Enteral Nutrition in Patients With Ileocaecal Crohn's Disease (XENIC): an Open-label, Multicenter, Prospective, Randomized Clinical Trial

Inflammatory bowel diseases are chronic and progressive entities, triggered by exposure to environmental factors in individuals with a genetic background.

One of the most common environmental factors is the type of diet which is a key influencer on pathogenesis. Nutrients alter the intestinal microbiota, thus changing the intestinal permeability. The Western-type diet encompasses sugar, fat, and protein-rich products that have some deleterious effects on the intestinal microbiome compared to the plant-based Mediterranean-type diet.

Based on this fact, diet-based therapeutic efforts have been used extensively in pediatric Crohn's disease patients and there is strong evidence that exclusive enteral nutrition (EEN) is as effective as corticosteroids to induce both clinical and endoscopic remission but this treatment strategy is underutilized in adults.