Outpatient treatment of moderately severe active ulcerative colitis with pulsed steroid therapy and conventional steroid therapy

Pulsed steroid therapy may induce rapid remission in patients with moderately severe ulcerative colitis in outpatient clinics. A total of 19 patients with moderately severe active ulcerative colitis who refused hospitalization were treated between October 1999 and September 2001 in the outpatient clinic. Patients were treated with either conventional oral steroid therapy or intravenous pulsed steroid therapy followed by conventional oral steroid therapy. Eight patients received conventional steroid therapy and 11 patients received pulsed steroid therapy followed by conventional steroid therapy. The efficacies of the two types of steroid therapy were equal, but patients with active colitis responded more quickly to pulsed steroid therapy than to conventional steroid therapy. No serious adverse effects were observed. Moderately severe colitis can be safely treated with either conventional or pulsed steroid therapy in the outpatient clinic, but pulsed steroid therapy may induce clinical remission more quickly than conventional steroid therapy.