Cyclosporin treatment in a corticosteroid-resistant ulcerative colitis.

Abstract

A 33-year-old woman with a 7-month history of ulcerative colitis refractory to oral and intravenous glucocorticoid therapy was treated with 8 mg/kg/day of oral cyclosporin. Mucobloody diarrhea disappeared within 2 weeks of the therapy, which was accompanied with marked improvements of the colonoscopic findings. After two months of cyclosporin treatment, she underwent colectomy with ileorectal anastomosis. No complication occurred. Following the operation, the cyclosporin administration was discontinued, but the inflammation of the residual rectum has well been controlled for more than 18 months with oral sulfasalazine and to mg/day of prednisolone suppository. Finger tremer, which was the only side effect of the cyclosporin treatment, was mild and required no treatments. The results suggest that cyclosporin can be used as a remission-inducing agent in patients with active ulcerative colitis, but further investigations will be necessary to clarify the effectiveness and indication of the agent.