From: The New England Journal of Medicine, Vol. 350, Number 9

A recent study examined the use of inflizimab as an effective therapy for patients with Crohn’s disease who have fistulas. Inlizimab is known to be an effective maintenance therapy on patients without fistulas.

The study was performed using 306 adult patients with Crohn’s disease who each had one or more draining abdominal or perianal fistulas of at least three months duration. Patients were given 5 mg of infliximab per kilogram of body weight intravenously five times over the course of 14 weeks. After this duration elapsed, those who had no response to the treatment and 195 who did were randomly assigned to receive a placebo. The study then continued until week 54.

It was found that the patients continually receiving inflizimab for the full 54 weeks were more likely to have an absence of draining fistulas. Thus, patients with fistulizing Crohn’s disease who have an initial response to induction therapy with inflizimab have an increased likelihood of a sustained response over a 54-week period if the treatment is continued every 8 weeks.