Effects of Crohn's disease exclusion diet on remission: a systematic review

Background: Dietary therapy may potentially reduce inflammation and promote mucosal healing in patients with Crohn's disease and is associated with fewer side effects and lower cost compared to medical therapy. Recently the Crohn's disease exclusion diet (CDED) has been developed to reduce exposure to individualized dietary components which negatively affect the intestine in patients with Crohn's disease.

Objectives: This systematic review aimed to explore the effectiveness of CDED in Crohn's disease patients.

Design: A systematic review.

Data sources and methods: A systematic search was performed on the PubMed, EBSCOhost, Cochrane library, OVID, Embase, Scopus, and CINHAL to identify relevant clinical trials published from 1 January 2014 to 31 August 2022.

Results: A total of 1120 studies were identified and 7 studies were finally included in the analysis. The study was reported according to Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analysis statement.

Conclusion: Our findings suggested that the use of CDED seemed to be effective for induction and maintenance of remission in children and adults with mild to moderate Crohn's disease. However, heterogeneity and limitations existed among the studies included. Further investigation in the form of well-designed randomized clinical trials is needed to validate the present findings.

Registration: PROSPERO registration number CRD42022335453.

Keywords: Crohn’s disease; remission; systematic review; the Crohn’s disease exclusion diet.

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