Oral vitamin B12 therapy supplementation in patients with ileo-colonic resection for Crohn's disease. Yes or not?
Abstract
To verify the efficacy and safety of orally administered vitamin B12 in patients with Crohn's disease after ileo-colonic resection. Methods: We compared cobalamin levels and his active form in 23 patients with Crohn's disease after ileo-colonic resection and low initial cobalamin concentrations, after one month of cobalamin supplementation (cohort A) with 19 patients also with Crohn's disease after ileo-colonic resection taking vitamin B12 replacement for two months (cohort B).
Results: After 14 days of cobalamin therapy, both groups showed a significant increase in serum vitamin B12 levels and its active form. The concentrations of both monitored parameters remained stable for the duration of cyanocobalamin supplementation.
In case of discontinuation of the substitution after 30 days from the start (cohort A), the levels of both analytes decreased again, while in cohort B (therapy lasting 60 days) there was no significant fluctuation in the levels of either of the measured parameters. Cohort B (two-month supplementation) had significantly higher concentrations of total cobalamin (P = 0.0044), but not of active vitamin B12.
The Spearman correlation coefficient of total and active cobalamin levels was relatively very high (r = 0.8081; P = 0.0001, thus demonstrating a good correlation between the dynamics of the rise in both forms of vitamin B12. Conclusion: Oral cobalamin substitution replacement at a dose of 1,000 μg per day is an effective method of choice for the treatment of cobalamin deficiency in patients after ileo-colonic resection for Crohn's disease, as it promptly led to normalization and maintenance of physiological serum cobalamin concentrations.