Anti-TNF therapy in the management of ocular attacks in an elderly patient with long-standing Behçet’s disease

BACKGROUND: Ocular symptoms in Behçet’s disease (BD) begin mostly before 30 years of age according to international surveys, and BD activity may decrease with age. Information regarding the treatment of ocular symptoms in elderly BD patients is thus scant. Anti-TNFα antibody has recently demonstrated strong effects against recurrent uveitis in BD, but the efficacy and safety of anti-TNFα therapy in elderly patients remain unclear. We report herein the case of an elderly patient with long-standing uveitis due to BD who was successfully treated with two types of anti-TNF therapy. CASE: An 81-year-old Japanese man presented with a 33-year history of ocular inflammation due to BD. As immunosuppressive agents, such as cyclosporine A, were difficult to use because he had undergone removal of the left kidney due to cancer, he was treated with colchicine. However, attacks of ocular inflammation persisted around nine times a year. After colchicine had been changed to infliximab, ocular inflammation was fairly well controlled, but ocular attacks still occurred once or twice a year. As soon as intestinal hemorrhage related to BD occurred, infliximab was switched to adalimumab. After this switch, ocular attacks resolved and visual acuity was maintained at 1.0. Intestinal lesions were also well controlled, and no side effects were seen. CONCLUSION: This represents the first report of the application of two types of anti-TNFα therapy for ocular attacks in an elderly BD patient. In addition to infliximab, adalimumab appears to offer an alternative therapy for refractory, long-standing BD-related uveitis in elderly patients.