Pregnancy and Crohn’s Disease: Infliximab induction therapy, Accidental Conception, Pregnancy Outcome and Postpartum Complications

Abstract

Crohn's disease is a well known inflammatory disease of
unknown origin. It appears mostly at young ages and the
need for a long lasting therapy with immunosuppressing
drugs makes decisions about these patients difficult especially
when taking into account the need of many female
patients to carry out a pregnancy. It is well known that CD
exacerbations can provoke adverse effects on the foetus with
a great risk of miscarriage. We present a case of a young
woman with Crohn's disease under treatment with infliximab
who accidentally conceived and was willing to carry
out the pregnancy. Since the use of infliximab was not recommended
during pregnancy, when the patient presented
flare ups she was treated with corticosteroids and 5-ASA in
order to achieve remission. The outcome was a spontaneously
and successfully terminated pregnancy. During the
early post-partum period she also presented a large abdominal
cyst that was treated operatively.
Key words: Infliximab, inflammatory bowel disease, pregnancy