Remission and Flares

Maintaining Remission
Some vasculitis patients in remission are prescribed a "maintenance" dosage of prednisone, or an immunosuppressive such as Imuran or Methotrexate or one of the other commonly used immunosuppressives.

Bactrim (TMP-SMX, Septra) or other formulations are often prescribed beyond remission to help maintain the disease in remission.

Surgery or other physical trauma sometimes triggers a relapse and some physicians put the AV patient on prednisone just prior to surgery, then take the patient off prednisone some time after the surgery.

Although there seems to be few studies supporting this, some AV patients feel that relapses have been triggered by excessive or serious:
• Infection
• Physical stress
• Emotional stress
• Trauma