Comparison Of Postoperative Course In Patients With or Without　Infliximab Therapy For Behçet's Disease

1. Takako Ito¹
2. Koh-Hei Sonoda²
3. Kuniaki Hijioka¹
4. Takeshi Fujimoto¹
5. Tatsuro Ishibashi¹

¹Department of Ophthalmology, Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan
²Department of Ophthalmology, Yamaguchi University Graduate School of Medicine,
Yamaguchi, Japan

Purpose: When patients with Behçet's disease (BD) have frequent ocular attacks, it is difficult to perform intraocular surgery for cataract or retinal diseases. Even for patients who do not experience attacks for a long time, attacks can often occur after surgery. On the other hand, the dramatic effect of infliximab for ocular BD has been known recently, and there is a report of a case of a successful cataract surgery outcome under infliximab therapy. We herein report the postoperative clinical course in patients with or without infliximab therapy for BD.

Methods: We performed retrospective review of BD patients under intraocular surgery (cataract surgery and vitrectomy) in patients with or without infliximab therapy from April 2007 to October 2009 at Kyushu University Hospital. The main outcome measures were the frequency of postoperative ocular attacks and complications. Surgery at the midpoint of the 8 weeks duration schedule is recommended mainly in orthopedic cases for rheumatoid arthritis under infliximab therapy. However, we thought attacks may be restrained at 0-2 weeks after infliximab administration with high serum level, and performed surgery at that time.

Results: Postoperative attacks occurred in many cases in patients without infliximab therapy. However, the frequency and severity of ocular attacks decreased, and there were no serious postoperative complications in patients with infliximab therapy.

Conclusions: Infliximab may restrain ocular attacks after intraocular surgery in BD. It is required to do further study.