Is Long Term Observation of Patients with Recurrent Aphthous Stomatitis Necessary?

Conclusion

Behçet’s disease is a chronic inflammatory disorder effecting many organ systems^1,2. Clinical manifestations of Behçet’s disease may occur concurrently or subsequently. Generally oral aphthous lesions are the initial symptoms of Behçet’s disease and other manifestations occur subsequently within varying periods during the course of the disease^3,4. However, it is a great dilemma to predict if patients presenting only with recurrent aphthous stomatitis will indeed develop Behçet’s disease in the future or not^5—6.

The retrospective analysis of the clinical data of 1238 RAS patients who were regularly followed up at multidisciplinary Behçet’s Disease Unit showed that 36 (2.9%) of them developed Behçet’s disease within a period ranging between 2 months and 15 years after the onset of aphthous lesions. Our results indicate that even though recurrent aphthous stomatitis is a rather common condition in general population, especially those patients who have major ulcerations and earlier onset of aphthous lesions should be regularly followed-up. We also suggest to perform the three-step pathergy test in every patient with recurrent aphthous stomatitis and closely follow-up patients with positive test results particularly in countries where Behçet’s disease is prevalent.