Safety of Accelerated Infliximab Infusions in Patients With Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD)

This study aims to test the hypothesis that the accelerated infusion of infliximab is not inferior to the conventional 2 hour infusion with respect to the frequency of infusion reaction.

The standard protocol of infliximab administration is the infusion for 2 hours. However, due to the discomfort of patients and limitation of medical resources, the accelerated infusion is more desirable if accelerated infusion does not increase the frequency of infusion reaction. Recent observational studies showed that the accelerated infusion of infliximab for 1 hour or 30 minutes did not increase the frequency of infusion reaction if patients had not shown infusion reactions during previous 4 infusions for 2 hours. However, there are no randomized trials comparing the safety of accelerated infusion protocol and standard infusion protocol yet.