Oral treatment experience in multiple sclerosis at Antalya Training and Research Hospital

Purpose: Our aim was to share our oral treatment experience in multiple sclerosis and how we decided to choose the right treatment for our patients. Materials and methods: We analyzed multiple sclerosis patients who were admitted to neurology clinic between 2012-2018. Demographic features, treatments that were used before initiating oral therapies, in which conditions the treatments were changed to oral therapies (increased relaps rate, progression, activation on magnetic resonance imaging, patient’s choice, adverse events with the previous treatment), the duration of the disease and the oral treatment, Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) scores were all recorded. Results: 550 patients with a definite clinical diagnosis of MS according to the 2010 McDonald criteria were enrolled. 108 (19.6%) patients were receiving oral treatment for multiple sclerosis. 53 patients (49.1%) were receiving fingolimod, 34 patients (31.5%) were receiving dimethylfumarate, 21 patients (19.4%), were receiving teriflunomide. The most evident cause for changing the treatment was the increased relaps rate. Conclusion: Although the ratio (19.6%) seemed to be lower than the ratio from whole Turkey (41%), the timing of the treatment change have been shown to be in therapeutic window