Unresponsiveness to Treatment, Pharmaceutical Alterations and Combined Treatments in Behçet’s Disease

Behçet’s disease is a multisystem inflammatory disease with chronic recurrences. Because of the chronic course, the treatment is very difficult. Classical treatment options are corticosteroids, azothiopurine and cyclosporin. Immunosuppressive agents should be used in addition to steroids in this disease. The aim of the treatment is to protect the visual acuity, reduce the attack frequency, reduce the severity of the attack and to taper off the steroids as early as possible. Although agents used in classical therapy have limited adrenocorticotropic side effects, they each have serious potential side effects, require strict follow-up, and may develop resistance or non-response to these agents. In patients with resistant Behçet’s disease, which can not be controlled by conventional treatment, the first choice should be interferon or biological agents. In this review, treatment options for patients with resistant Behcet’s disease that can not be controlled by conventional therapy are discussed.