Drug safety in Crohn's disease therapy.

The management of Crohn's disease usually consists of a succession of short-term acute phase treatments followed by a long-term maintenance therapy. Above all the most frequent adverse events and the data on the long-term safety of the therapeutic arsenal available to the physician will be taken into consideration. The drugs described in this article include 5-ASA compounds, antibiotics (metronidazole, ciprofloxacin and rifaximin), corticosteroids (budesonide, prednisone and equivalents), thiopurines (azathioprine and 6-mercaptopurine), methotrexate, anti-tumor necrosis factor inhibitors (infliximab, adalimumab, certolizumab), natalizumab, anticalcineurin inhibitors (cyclosporine, tacrolimus) and mycophenolate mofetil.