Allergen specific immunotherapy induced multi-organ failure. Case report.

Case report 

Cite this article: Aissa Sana, Chaker Ben Salem, Khedher Ahmed, Azouzi Abdelbeki, Sehli Jihed, Ben Saida Imene, Boussarsar Mohamed. Allergen specific immunotherapy induced multi-organ failure. The Pan African Medical Journal. 2013;14:155 Key words: Allergen specific immunotherapy, multi-organ failure, Allergy, drug reaction, desensitization Permanent link: Full Text: http://www.panafrican-med-journal.com/content/article/14/155/full doi:10.11604/pamj.2013.14.155.1891  Cite or link using DOI Received: 17/07/2012 - Accepted: 29/12/2012 - Published: 23/04/2013 © Aissa Sana et al.   The Pan African Medical Journal - ISSN 1937-8688. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Allergen specific immunotherapy induced multi-organ failure

Aissa Sana^1,&, Chaker Ben Salem², Khedher Ahmed¹, Azouzi Abdelbeki¹, Sehli Jihed¹, Ben Saida Imene¹, Boussarsar Mohamed¹

¹Intensive Care Unit. Farhat Hached Hospital, Sousse, Tunisia, ²Department of Clinical Pharmacology. Faculty of Medicine of Sousse, Tunisia

^&Corresponding author
Boussarsar Mohamed. Service de Réanimation Médicale, CHU Farhat Hached,4000 Sousse, Tunisie

Abstract

Allergen specific immunotherapy (ASI) is a well-documented treatment for allergic asthma, rhinitis and allergy to bee venoms. Immunotherapy with subcutaneous injections of allergens extracts has proved beneficial in reducing symptoms of allergic rhinitis and asthma. Side effects due to specific immunotherapy in short term have been largely documented. These effects were various but were usually mild. Fatal reactions are less frequent. We reported a case of a woman, with a history of allergic asthma under specific desensitization protocol who developed an acute multi-organ failure (MOF) consecutive to administration of ASI (Alustal® Stallergenes SA, France). This fatal reaction has never been described as adverse event of specific immunotherapy. We aimed to describe this dramatic reaction, expose the arguments to define the relationship between the administration of allergen extract and the occurrence of this fatal reaction.

Permanent link: Full Text: http://www.panafrican-med-journal.com/content/article/14/155/full