Case Report: Treatment of Major Aphthous Lesions of Behçet’s Disease with Immunomodulatory Effects of Low-Dose Antibiotic Treatment

Abstract

Aim: Behçet’s disease (BD) is a multisystemic inflammatory disease. The most common symptoms are recurrent major aphthous lesions in mouth. It is the initial symptom in most (about 80%) of the cases. It is very crucial to treat oral symptoms in order to minimize oral discomfort caused by inflammatory lesions in BD patients. The aim of this case report is to ameliorate the oral symptoms of BD by using the immunomodulatory effects of antibiotics. Case Report: We present treatment of BD’s oral symptoms by using the immunomodulatory effects of antibiotics. A 30-year-old patient presented to our clinic with 2 major aphthae and discomfort in eating. The patient was treated with low-dose azithromycin for 3 weeks. Discussion: The low-dose antibiotic therapy is a proven treatment modality for relieving oral symptoms of BD. Low-dose azithromycin was successful in relieving the oral symptoms of BD within 3 weeks. In the treatment of advanced aphthous lesions, the completion of the healing in 3 weeks of treatment and the absence of recurrence of aphthous lesions in 2 months proves the success of the treatment. Conclusion: One week after starting the treatment, improvement was observed in the lesions. After 3 weeks of treatment, the aphthous lesions were completely healed. It was observed that oral symptoms did not return at the end of the 2-month treatment follow-up. Although azithromycin is used in the treatment of aphthous lesions caused by BD, more research is needed in this area.

Keywords

• Antibiotic
• Azithromycin
• Behçet’s disease
• Low-dose antibiotic treatment
• Surgery

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