Withdrawal of Colchicine in Behçet Syndrome Patients With Skin and Mucosa Involvement

Behçet's syndrome is a multisystem variable vessel vasculitis. Clinical features include mucocutaneous manifestions such as oral ulcers, genital ulcers, papulopustular lesions and nodular lesions, musculoskeletal manifestations, uveitis, venous thrombosis, arterial aneurysms and thrombosis, central nervous system involvement and gastrointestinal involvement. Management of Behçet's syndrome depends on the type of organ involvement, disease severity, and prognostic factors. The main objective in patients with major organ involvement is to rapidly suppress the inflammation and prevent relapses in order to prevent organ damage. On the other hand, mucocutaneous and musculoskeletal manifestations do not cause damage and in patients with only mucocutaneous and joint involvement, the aim is to improve the quality of life.

Colchicine is usually the first-line systemic treatment in patients with only mucocutaneous and joint involvement. Conflicting results were reported on the efficacy of colchicine on different mucocutaneous manifestations in randomized placebo-controlled trials. The relapsing and remitting nature of these manifestations in Behçet's syndrome may cause challenges in disease assessment during clinical trials. Another approach to evaluate the effectiveness of a medication is to evaluate whether the lesions recur or increase after discontinuation of the drug. The aim of this study is to assess mucocutaneous disease activity among Behçet's syndrome patients after discontinuation of colchicine treatment and compare it to patients who continue to use colchicine.