[Recurrent exudative pericarditis--non-traditional therapy with colchicine].

Relapses are one of the most serious complications of exudative pericarditis. Optimal treatment which prevents exacerbation of the disease does not exist so far. Non-steroid antiphlogistic drugs are usually drugs of choice. Corticoids are used in more severe conditions or during frequent relapses. Development of a relapse, despite corticoid treatment, calls for more intense and prolonged corticoid treatment even when this treatment produces undesirable side-effects. Surgical methods do not always produce a lasting favourable effect, as the authors observed repeatedly in two patients from the group of patients referred to. The initial therapeutic findings after colchicine treatment in relapsing pericarditis are optimistic but it will be necessary to find in larger groups of patients the optimal method of implementation of this treatment.