Ulcers over the joints

[ashu]

Hello.

My daughter who has scleroderma since 4 years has painful ulcers over the joints, which don't heal for months together. Because of that she has difficulty in walking and great difficulty in doing physiotherapy. Can anybody help me? Is there any role for cyclophosphamide infusion in healing the ulcer?

m/o ashu

[Jeannie McClelland]

Hi Ashu,

 

I'm sorry your daughter is having such problems. How old is she?

 

You don't say which joints are affected by the ulcers nor how they are treating them. Most treatment seems to involve treating any infection at the site of the ulcer, protecting the area from contamination and any further damage. As you already know, ulcers can take a long time to heal.

 

I'm not a doctor, but I have never read of Cytoxan in any form being used to treat ulcers. If you click on the highlighted word, it will take you to the page we have on it.

 

Cytoxan was developed to treat cancer, but has since been used as an extremely powerful immune system suppressant. It has many potentially harmful side effects. Has your daughter's doctor suggested using this?

 

Hope this information helps.

 

Best wishes to you and to her,

[lizzie]

Hi ashu, I'm sorry to hear that your daughter has developed ulcers, it must be very distressing for both you and her. The most effective treatment for healing ulcers, as far as I am aware, is Iloprost (a prostocyclin) delivered intravenously. I don't know whether this would be available to your daughter. It is quite commonly used in the UK for the prevention and treatment of ulcers.

 

Lizzie

[bookworm]

Since my doctor put me on Viagra and later Cialis, I haven't had any more ulcers. I had one really severe one that took about a year to heal. After that, the next one I started getting caused my doctor to try the Viagra and it cleared that new ulcer right up. I haven't had another one since then and that's bee several years ago. I believe this treatment is described on this site.

Good luck

 

Mary in Texas

[Eos]

Viagra? Isn't that a male potency drug? Am I missing something?

[Shelley Ensz]

Hi Eos,

 

You are correct, Viagra is an impotency drug. However, it achieves this by stimulating a great improvement in circulation, so it has been found very useful for treating scleroderma digital ulcers. So it's one of the very few scleroderma treatments that is more often welcomed than shunned. ;)

[Flower]

Hi,

 

I to suffer with finger tip ulcers and have tried all the meds including viagra. I choose to discontinue the viagra and I believe it was what caused me to have 'break through bleeding'...I am post menopausal. What about Gabapentin? Have you given that a try? I had to take mine as a compound cream since I did not care to take it orally.

 

Hope this helps.

Hugs,

Flower

[debonair susie]

It IS true about the benefits of Viagra, just as Shelley named.

 

As a matter of fact, my dr wanted to prescribe it for my raynauds issues (I do not suffer from finger ulcers, thankfully). However, I opted not to take it and am taking another medication that works well for me.

[Kiwi]

I have had ulcers for years and it's not since giving up smoking and taking Cialis they've mostly cleared up. Unfortunately it's expensive in NZ!!

[scragporter]

Sorry to hear about your daughters ulcers, vasodilators like norvasc helped my Raynauds, also viagra can help with circulation and nitro paste applied topically around the ulcers can aid in helping circulation to the affected areas. Pulmonary hypertensive meds like Bosantan and Leitaris have been shown to aid not only pulmonary hypertension but aid secondary digital ulceration healing. I was on Leitaris for my pulmonary hypertension and with the other meds my ulcers improved. I also had IV cyclophosphamide over six months once monthly it somewhat helped soften my skin and stopped my lungs from deteriorating for awhile.
Sharon