Systemic reactions of allergen immunotherapy is a topic of great importance in our field. I have been compelled to write about this topic because of my team leader nurse Erin. Systemic reactions can be simply understood as a reaction to immunotherapy that occurs more than 5 cm beyond the local area where the allergen immunotherapy injection was given. Until recently, the definition and grading of severity has not been well standardized. A Task Force of the AAAAI/ACAAI proposed a draft of recommendations, that was published in March of 2010. I read them and agree with them. Even more instructive were the comments that have been sent it to the publisher's webpage. Once the final guidelines are endorsed by the member societies, I plan to have our operations reviewed to make sure we have minimized the chances of a systemic reaction. Generally immunotherapy has become safer with time. The published abstract of this article is on PubMed here.
My practice has been both fortunate and careful, in that I have had no fatalities related to immunotherapy since I began practicing allergy in 1991. This is a start on this difficult topic.
Your Allergy Dude
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