title: Adalimumab treatment in children with refractory Crohn's disease.
abstract: Information on safety and efficacy of adalimumab in children with Crohn's disease (CD) is limited. We present a case-series of 14 children with severe CD treated with adalimumab during a 3.5-year period. Fourteen children (nine boys, five girls), aged 13.9 years (range 1.9-19.1) were treated with adalimumab during 12.5 months (range 7-42). All had steroid or immunosuppression-drugs refractory disease. Ten patients (71%) had been previously treated with infliximab, 13/14 were treated with different immunosuppressive drugs and all were steroid-dependent or resistant. Seven children (50%) showed full clinical response and 5/14 (35%) improved partially. Two children (15%) had loss of response after a period of transient improvement. Adalimumab treatment enabled complete steroids withdrawal in 8/14 (57%) of steroid-dependent children. Currently, five children are in complete remission with adalimumab monotherapy for a median 14 months (range 9-24). Adalimumab may induce and maintain remission in children with severe, refractory CD. Prospective safety and efficacy confirmation of this data in children is necessary.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Gastroenterology, Nutrition, and Liver Disease, Schneider Children's Medical Center of Israel, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel-Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel.
authors.forename: Yoram
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Rosenbach
authors.forename: Corina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Hartman
authors.forename: Rivka
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Shapiro
authors.forename: Akiva
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hirsch
authors.forename: Yaron
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Avitzur
authors.forename: Raanan
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Shamir