Treatment-Free Remission in Chronic Idiopathic Thrombocytopenic Purpura

Idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP) is a disease in which the immune system attacks platelets and causes a decrease in their number, exposing the patient to bleeding risk. It is a diagnosis by exclusion. ITP usually presents as acute disease and is self-limiting in pediatric patients, while it tends to be chronic in adults. Eltrombopag is a thrombopoietin receptor agonist used as a second-line treatment for ITP. This drug is approved for use in adults as second-line therapy, but little is known about its use in the pediatric patient population. We report the case of a 14-year-old girl with chronic steroid-dependent ITP who responded well to eltrombopag and maintained treatment-free remission after stopping the drug.