Clinical trial: probiotic treatment of acute distal ulcerative colitis with rectally administered Escherichia coli Nissle 1917 (EcN)

Probiotics are effective in inflammatory bowel diseases. Clinical effectiveness and dose dependency of E. coli Nissle (EcN) enemas were investigated in ulcerative colitis (UC). In a double-blind study, 90 patients with moderate distal activity in UC were randomly assigned to treatment with either 40, 20, or 10 ml enemas (N = 24, 23, 23) containing 10E8 EcN/ml or placebo (N = 20). The study medication was taken once daily for at least 2 weeks. After 2, 4 and/or 8 weeks the clinical DAI was assessed together with tolerance to treatment. Patients who reached clinical DAI