A study is under way to see if a liquid nutrition programme can improve the lives of Crohn’s disease patients undergoing surgery.
University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust is undertaking a clinical trial to see if the diet, known as Exclusive Enteral Nutrition (EEN), could help when taken alongside bowel surgery.
Working with the University of Birmingham, it is hoped the study will determine whether it can cut complications and improve outcomes.
John Gault, 34, of Newhaven, has lived with Crohn’s since he was 11 and had surgery at the Royal Sussex County Hospital earlier this year. Beforehand, he followed a programme similar to that being studied, calling it “life changing”.
Crohn’s disease is a chronic inflammatory condition of the digestive tract., external
Gault said: “The symptoms that used to dominate so much of my life have reduced significantly, and my health now feels much closer to how it was before I developed Crohn’s.”