Treatment of the mucosa with local anaesthetics in ulcerative colitis

A new paradigm for the treatment of ulcerative colitis has recently been presented: Treatment of the mucosa with lidocaine (2%) enemas for prolonged periods. This therapy was introduced based on the hypothesis that hyperreactive autonomic nerves may play a pathogenetic role in the disease. One hundred consecutive patients have now been treated and the results presented. The proctitis patients all responded to the treatment, despite previous therapeutic failures in more than two-thirds of the cases. They were treated for 3-12 weeks, but 68% had a relapse (observation period 20 months). Of the 49 patients with proctosigmoiditis, two-thirds had chronic symptoms resistant to previous therapy. One of these patients did not respond to lidocaine, but developed fulminant total colitis. The other patient had therapeutic failure with lidocaine but responded well to subsequent cortisone enemas. The patients were treated until the subsets of T-lymphocytes (OKT4+ and OKT8+) disappeared from the mucosa. This occurred in parallel with symptomatic relief and eventual healing in 83% of the patients after treatment for 6-34 weeks. Of all the patients with proctosigmoiditis, 42% presented with recurrent symptoms (observation period 16 months). Of the 17 patients with left-sided colitis, all went primarily into remission within 2-4 months, but 23% had a relapse (observation period 13 months). The 6 patients with total colitis had symptomatic relief and improvement of histology when treated over 3-8 months. One patient had recurrence after 12 months. Treatment with a local anaesthetic in ulcerative colitis is a new approach to mucosal inflammation. The beneficial effects may be due to blockade of certain neural effects, such as epithelial proliferation and shedding and congestion of the mucosal vasculature, with actions on cells of the immune system.