P611 “An old and inexpensive drug to minimize the side effects of a new and expensive one”: Colchicine for the skin lesions induced by the tumor necrosis factor-alpha inhibitors, a case-series study

Background: Anti-tumor necrosis factor (TNF) antibodies (infliximab and adalimumab) represent the major biological therapy for inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD). These drugs induced dermatologic side effects. Our aims were to report a case series of patients with anti-TNF inhibitors-induced skin lesions during therapy for IBD, and to emphasize the usefulness of an old-fashion and inexpensive drug, colchicine, to adequately control this phenomenon. Methods: Patients with IBD treated with anti-TNF drugs, who consulted at our Gastrointestinal Unit from January 2010 to June 2012, who presented with skin lesions as side effects of the biological therapy were included. All patients were seen by a Dermatologist and skin biopsies were performed. Results: In this period, 43 patients with IBD were treated with biological therapy (29 patients with infliximab and 14 with adalimumab), accounting an incidence of 6.9% for biological therapy-induced skin lesions. We report 3 patients with IBD and biological therapy-induced skin lesions who were treated with colchicine with an excellent response. The characteristic of the patients and the biological therapies received are described in Table 1. All the patients presented with psoriasis-like skin lesions. The histopathological examinations of the skin biopsies showed findings compatible with pharmacodermia in patient #1 and psoriasis-like in patients #2 and #3.