Use of Remicade Infusions for Crohns

Hello Crohn's Patients:
Have been on Humira injections for 5 years, just added Methotrexate injections about 4 months and Folic Acid. My inflammation is still going on with no remission. I'm managing my symptoms reasonably. Because I have a restriction at my last surgery reconstruction (14" small & large colon removed), the fear is that the restriction I have at the reconstruction area is getting smaller due to inflammation and scarring. The VA has tried to balloon the area but have had no real success in that they could not see what is on the other side of the restriction via colonoscopy. I thought they were going to recommend Entyvio infusion, but my VA says that they haven't had good success with it. So they are recommending Remicade Infusions, other than surgery again to remove the restriction and try again. So I have the decision to make of Remicade infusions and was wondering if I could get some input from those with Crohns Disease that have been doing the Remicade Infusions. Please advise and THANKS. Crazylegs

I took Remicade for two and a half years. It put my guts into remission. I will say my Crohn's was diagnosed as mild. I received Remicade for my Ankylosing Spondylitis.

Over the 13 years as a member here we have many members that have had great success with Remicade.

Welcome to Healing Well!

Thanks for the information and sharing. I pray the best for you all. Still deliberating and praying about it, but looks like there could be an improvement using remicade. Those who do use remicade...are you still on a 4 hour fusion every 8 weeks?

Thanks again, Crazylegs

I did dual therapy too. Humira and 6mp. It was not enough to get my condition down from a severe rating. We switched from Humira to Remicade a year ago. I noticed a small improvement. Last summer we increased from 300mg Remicade to 500mg Remicade. That really took it down. My condition is now rated moderate. I'm still on the 6mp dual therapy too.

Most of the inflammation that is left is perianal. I'm still getting fistula's so I'm going to get an Ileostomy in a couple months. That will allow the fistula's to heal. I'll then have the option to reverse the Ileostomy if I want to. There are not any medications that are proven to effectively treat perianal disease to my knowledge. I know some people see improvement from biologics, but I don't know of any studies that prove this is a consistent outcome.

I asked my GI doc why the Remicade would work better than the Humira if it's the same mechanism. He said he believes the FDA approved level for Remi is higher than Humira. There's only so much medication you can put into a syringe for delivery, whereas an infusion is practically unlimited.

Remi is nice because you can increase the dose if needed: starting 300mg, then 500mg and I think the highest is 700mg. You can also shorten the time between visits from 8 weeks, to 7 weeks to 6 weeks. That gives the Doc a lot of room to work to get results.

Also, there is a blood test that you can get for Remicade that will determine whether you have antibodies to the medication and they can determine the level of Remi in your system to make sure it's where it should be. You might have to pay out of pocket for the test ($150 or so), but it could save a lot of time and suffering if it's not working. I don't know if there is a similar test for Humira. If you have antibodies, the medication is destroyed as soon as it enters your system. Everyone is unique: different body masses, different liver/kidney function, different amounts of inflammation to manage and different other chemicals in the system. So checking the volume in your blood is a good idea. You may need to be on it for a minimum 6mos or 12mos before this can be done. I'm not sure about that part.

Remicade has been the best drug I've tried so far, pretty much the only one I've responded to. Good stuff. I also take Methotrexate with it.