Successful treatment of life-threatening intestinal ulcer in Behcet's disease with infliximab: rapid healing of Behcet's ulcer with infliximab

Behcet's disease is a chronic, relapsing, multisystem inflammatory disorder characterized predominantly by recurrent orogenital ulcers, skin involvement, and uveitis. Recurrent mucocutaneous lesions may be the only symptom in mild cases, but ocular, gastrointestinal, and central nervous system involvement may occur in severe cases. We report in this study the successful treatment with infliximab of severe life-threatening GI bleeding caused by an ileal ulcer in a patient with Behcet's disease. Antitumor necrosis factor (TNF) therapy could be an emergency therapeutic option in patients with massively bleeding Behcet's disease and unstable patients or those with acute bleeding with other TNF-alpha-mediated autoimmune diseases. Another option for anti-TNF therapy could be as bridging management between conservative and surgical treatment.