The Intestinal Rehabilitation Program at Seattle Children’s, the only program of its kind in the Pacific Northwest, is dedicated to reducing transplantation rates through innovative research that improves intestinal failure management.
Seattle Children’s was one of the largest recruiters for the first 12-week trial evaluating the efficacy and safety of the investigational drug teduglutide for patients with long-term TPN dependence related to short bowel syndrome. Already approved for short bowel syndrome treatment in adults, teduglutide is designed to reduce the need for TPN.
“Teduglutide is the first drug to be introduced to the commercial market that has a sound theoretical basis, as well as supportive preclinical and adult clinical studies, to improve intestinal adaptation above and beyond what can be achieved with the best standard of care,” says Dr. Simon P. Horslen, director of the Intestinal Rehabilitation Program and medical director of Solid Organ Transplantation at Seattle Children’s, and professor of pediatrics with UW Medicine. “Anything that has the potential to wean a child from TPN or even reduce the amount of TPN they receive will improve quality of life.”
Results from the initial 12-week trial were promising. Among 42 children ages 1 to 17, the treatment was associated with overall reductions in TPN, in some cases as significant as 41%. Four children were weaned from TPN entirely during the study.
Horslen and his co-investigator, Dr. Danielle Wendel, gastroenterologist at Seattle Children’s and assistant professor at UW Medicine, are awaiting results from a recently completed 24-week study.
“Teduglutide is a huge step forward in the management of intestinal failure,” Horslen says.
Reducing the need for intestinal transplants
Seattle Children’s is involved in a number of research consortiums, including the Pediatric Intestinal Failure Consortium, the Intestinal Rehabilitation and Transplantation Association and the International Intestinal Transplant Registry, investigating the causes of intestinal failure with the ultimate goal of reducing the need for transplants.
“We’re constantly working on new ways to advance care for intestinal failure,” Wendel says. “Most centers aren’t actively involved in research, so our research efforts enable us to offer treatments that aren’t readily available everywhere.”
Call 206-987-7777 for provider-to-provider patient consults and visit our Intestinal Rehabilitation Program to learn more.
