Colchicine Therapy in Recurrent Oral Ulcers

To the Editor.—

During the past two decades, colchicine has been shown to be effective in treating a wide variety of inflammatory disorders, including the cutaneous lesions of Behçet's disease.¹As there is no clear-cut distinction between recurrent oral ulcers or so-called aphthous stomatitis and the mucosal involvement in Behçet's disease,²we used colchicine therapy in four cases of protracted aphthous stomatitis.

Report of Cases.—Case 1.—

A 32-year-old woman had a long history of recurrent ulceration of the mouth during every menstrual period. Following a prodromal phase of soreness and burning sensation for one to two days, two or three small aphthous ulcers appeared, causing pain for ten days. Oral colchicine, 0.6 mg/day, was administered for a month, with no recurrence of the ulcers during the subsequent menstrual period. However, the patient complained of nausea after one month of therapy, so we limited administration of the