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Treatment of Behcets disease

Erkan Alpsoy and Ayse Akman

Behçet’s disease is a chronic, relapsing, systemic vasculitis of unknown etiology with the clinical features of mucocutaneous lesions and ocular, vascular, articular, gastrointestinal, urogenital, pulmonary and neurologic involvement. The disease is particularly prevalent in ‘Silk Route’ populations but has a global distribution. Behçet’s disease effects primarily young subjects. The diagnosis is based on clinical criteria, as there is no pathognomonic test. Besides considerable morbidity, the disease confers an increased mortality, mainly due to large vessel (especially pulmonary arterial) and neurologic involvement as well as bowel perforation. No standard therapy has yet been established for the treatment of Behçet’s disease, and a wide spectrum of therapeutic agents have been used with varying success. Treatment of the disease has become much more effective in recent years with the introduction of newer drugs. This paper will aim to provide an overview of the therapeutic approaches including local and systemic agents for the treatment of Behçet’s disease.