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Lactobacillus GG Not Helpful in Maintaining Remission of Crohn's Disease in Children: Presented at NASPGHAN

By Coriene E. Hannapel
Special to DG News

SAN ANTONIO, TX -- October 25, 2002 -- For children with Crohn's disease, treatment with lactobacillus GG (LGG) in addition to standard therapy does not appear to be helpful in maintaining remission when compared to placebo.

"Basically, we do not have perfect and safe therapies to get Crohn's disease into remission," said Alhos Bousvaios, MD, assistant professor of paediatrics at Boston Children¹s Hospital, in Boston, Massachusetts. Dr. Bousvaios presented the result of his multicenter, placebo-controlled, double-blind study here October 24 at the annual meeting of the North America and Society for Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition (NASPGHAN).

Probiotics are known to be safe, he said, and preliminary studies have suggested that they might be helpful in preventing Crohn's disease relapses or in control the disease.

To determine if treatment with LGG could prolong remission in children who were in remission for Crohn's disease and on standard maintenance therapy, Dr. Bousvaios and colleagues enrolled 65 children with small and large bowl Crohn's disease, mean age of 15 years.

Patients were randomised to one of two groups, receiving either LGG therapy consisting of 10 billion bacteria given two times a day (n=34) or a placebo (n=31). Each group received standard maintenance therapy, which was determined by the treating center. Follow-up time was two years, or until withdrawal from the study or a relapse occurred.

For this study, a relapse was defined as exacerbation of disease, a need for surgery, or need for other medications, including steroids, antibiotics, or immunomodulary agents.

Relapse occurred in 35 percent of the LGG treatment group and 22 percent of patients taking placebo. Results indicated that there was no difference in the two groups as far as preventing remission of Crohn's disease.

"Part of the issue here may have been that our patients were on many other medications," which included aminoslaicylates, 6MP/azathioprine, and prednisone, Dr. Bousvaios said.

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