Normal absorption of oral prednisolone in children with active inflammatory bowel disease, including cases with proximal to distal small bowel involvement.

In order to determine whether oral prednisolone efficiency in inflammatory bowel disease may be limited by impaired absorption, seven patients were studied. These were children with active disease, localized or extensive on the small and/or the large bowel. Serum prednisolone concentrations were compared within each subject after oral and intravenous administration of the same dose. Absorption was found complete, and its rate similar to that in nine normal adults. Thus prednisolone malabsorption did not limit treatment efficiency. In one patient, an alternative explanation was poor compliance with the treatment. Less complete studies in nine other children with active inflammatory bowel disease suggested the same conclusion. Prednisolone malabsorption in children with inflammatory bowel disease, if it exists, could only be transitory or exceptional.