Effectiveness and safety of infliximab and adalimumab for ambulatory Crohn's disease patients in primary gastroenterology centres

article i nfo Background:Infliximab (IFX) and adalimumab (ADA) arethe key treatmentsfor Crohn'sDisease(CD),unrespon- sivetostandard treatments. Our aim wastocompare the efficacy and safety ofIFXandADAintreating CD inclin- ical practice. Methods:One hundredandtwenty-sixpatients(61 M,65F,meanage 36.2 years,range19-67 years),affectedby CD, were treated with infliximab (IFX, 59 patients) or adalimumab (ADA, 66 patients). Clinical efficacy, mucosal healing (MH), histological healing (HH), and safety were assessed. MH was defined complicated if healing of ul- cers occurred with deformation of bowel profile and/or complete colonoscopy was impossible because of scars. Results: Patients were followed-up for 36 months. No difference was found between IFX and ADA in maintaining long-term clinicalremission,MHandHH.ComplicatedMHwaspresentin17(28.8%)patientsinIFXgroupandin 7 (10.6%) patients in ADA group (p = 0.012). In 9 (15.2%) patients in IFX group and 2 (3.0%) patients in ADA group colonoscopy was incomplete without cecal intubation or terminal ileum exploration (p = 0.024). Side effects were similar in both groups. Conclusions: Both IFX and ADA seem to be effective and safe in long-term outpatient treatment of CD in clinical practice.