Surgical outcomes and risk factors for postoperative complications in patients with Behcet's disease

This study aims to investigate surgical outcomes in patients with Behcet's disease (BD) and to identify risk factors for the occurrence of postoperative complications. The medical records of 37 patients with newly diagnosed BD were reviewed retrospectively. All patients fulfilled the International Study Group criteria for diagnosis of BD and underwent surgeries after diagnosis. Demographic, clinical, and laboratory data at the time when surgeries were performed were collected and surgical modalities, postoperative complications, and postoperative medical treatments were evaluated. Forty-three surgeries were performed in 37 patients. During mean follow-up duration of 78.2 +/- 50.3 months, 14 surgeries (32.6%) were complicated by wound dehiscence, infection, and graft occlusion or failure with the mean lag time of 6.0 +/- 4.6 months from surgeries. Cumulative incidence of postoperative complications was 7.7% at 3 months, 25.6% at 6 months, 33.3% at 12 months, and 35.9% at 18 months. Postoperative complications occurred more frequently after surgeries that were performed in patients with positive pathergy test (P < 0.001) and after vascular surgeries than after nonvascular surgeries (P < 0.05). Moreover, surgeries that were followed by glucocorticoids with immunosuppressive agents showed a significantly lower postoperative complication rate compared to those that were followed by glucocorticoids alone and those that were not followed by medical treatment (P < 0.05). Multivariate analysis showed that a positive pathergic reaction (P < 0.05, hazard ratio = 1.91) at the time of surgery and surgeries that were not followed by treatment with glucocorticoids and immunosuppressive agent (P < 0.01, hazard ratio = 2.11) was an independent risk factor for the occurrence of postoperative complications. Our findings suggest that the occurrence of postoperative complications can be reduced when postsurgical immunosuppressive treatment was implemented and that the pathergy test can be used as screening methods for occurrence of postoperative complications in patients with BD.