ISSN: 1305-385X
Hakkında: Özel sayılar şeklinde yayınlanır.
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Safety And Side Effects Associated With Allergen Immunotherapy
Dr. Betül Ayşe SİNa
aAllerjik Hastalıklar BD, Ankara Üniversitesi Tıp Fakültesi, ANKARA
Allergen-specific immunotherapy (IT) is accepted as an effective treatment for patients with respiratory allergies and also hymenoptera venom allergy. Nevertheless, allergen IT poses the risk of side-effects such as reactivation of the disease, and even anaphylactic shock and death. Local and systemic reactions can occur during allergen IT. Systemic allergic reactions after receiving allergen vaccines usually begin within 20 minutes. However, on occasion, they begin 20 to 30 minutes or longer after an injection. If the patient experiences large local reactions, adjustment of extract dosage should be considered. The guidelines recommend a 30-minute waiting period. However, a longer waiting period is necessary for high-risk subjects.
Premedication with antihistamines may decrease the incidence of systemic reactions associated with rush protocols, although such studies have not been done with conventional protocols. Concern was voiced over masking a mild reaction by using premedication, potentially causing a later, more serious reaction or delaying the onset of a reaction beyond the waiting period.
In conclusion; no allergen vaccine can be considered completely safe for a given patient allergic to that vaccine. The risk of a fatal reaction can be reduced by the careful selection and monitoring of allergic patients on IT, by using improved biologically standardized allergen extracts and by skilled and timely treatment of systemic reactions.Keywords: Adverse effects; desensitization, immunologicTurkiye Klinikleri J Int Med Sci 2007, 3(41):14-19
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