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Infections after AIT injections remain unrelated to treatment
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Researchers found no skin and soft tissue infection or systemic infections after administering more than 130,000 allergen immunotherapy treatments to patients at Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, according to a recent study published in The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.
Recent United States Pharmacopeia regulations seek to restrict allergen compounding and limit patient access to allergy shots. Diana S. Balekian, MD, MPH, from the division of rheumatology, allergy, and immunology and department of medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, and colleagues studied allergen immunotherapy (AIT) injections performed in clinical practice.
They analyzed 136,322 AIT injections from 3,242 patients from November 2005 to October 2015 recorded into the Research Patient Data Registry. Patients were mean 38 years (interquartile range [IQR] = 28-50), consisted of a 60% female and 75% white cohort, and the median number of injections per patient was 30 (IQR = 1354).
Overall, the results showed 66 patients with 86 infections billed that occurred within 5 days of administration. Of these infections, 37 (43%) were skin and soft tissue infections, and 49 (57%) were systemic infections. However, not all soft-tissue and systemic infections reported were at sites related to the allergy shot, the researchers wrote in their study.
“Out of the many millions of injections, administered to millions of patients over several decades, there are no reported infections. In this study, our team also found zero reported infections due to AIT,” Aiden A. Long, MD, senior author, stated in a press release. “It’s clear that the sterility and safety practices in place during the study period are adequate in preventing adverse infectious outcomes related to the preparation and administration of AIT.” – by Jeff Craven
Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.