Successful treatment of SAPHO syndrome with an oral bisphosphonate.

The etiology of the synovitis, acne, pustulosis, hyperostosis, and osteitis (SAPHO) syndrome remains unclear and treatment with various drugs for SAPHO syndrome often fails. But recently the effectiveness of intravenous bisphosphonates (BPs) for SAPHO syndrome has been reported in many cases and the use of intravenous BPs as first choice drug has been thought to be effective. On the other hand, serious side effects of intravenous BPs were reported in some cases. This is the first reported case of successful treatment of SAPHO syndrome with an oral BPs, the use of which is safer and more practical than intravenous BPs.