CHALLENGES IN THE TREATMENT OF NEURO-BEHÇET’S DISEASE — a case report

Abstract

Behçet's disease is a multisystem disease of insufficiently known etiology, with genetics playing a significant role in its development, featuring an increased frequency of the HLA-B51 gene in the genome of patients, but it can sometimes also be associated with the presence of certain strains of bacteria. pathogenetically, this disease is considered to be small-vessel vasculitis. The disease most often manifests itself in oral and genital ulcerations with frequent uveitis and skin changes, and, in very rare cases, there are neurological manifestations, which occur in less than 10 percent of patients that suffer from this disease, and in that case we call it the neuro-Behçet's disease. The treatment of this disease depends on the clinical condition and the treatment approach is individual for each patient. The greatest challenge is the treatment of neuro-Behçet's disease due to the severity of the clinical condition and frequent inadequate response to therapy. Neuro-Behçet's disease is treated with corticosteroids, various immunosuppressants and biological therapy -e.g., TNF-alpha inhibitors as the latest form of therapy with the best results. This paper intends to present the case of a patient with neurological manifestations of the disease, the challenges that we faced during the treatment, the complications that occurred, and the resulting changes in therapy that were sometimes necessary.