Drug-Induced Anaphylaxis clinical trials

Perioperative Anaphylaxis in Patients Attending University Hospitals (Egypt - UK).

Perioperative anaphylaxis is associated with significant morbidity and mortality. Most textbooks describe it as a rare event of the order of 1 in 10 to 1 in 20,000 general anaesthetic cases. However, a recent study in the United Kingdom suggested that 1 in 350 cases have features suspicious of perioperative anaphylaxis. This study suggests that perioperative anaphylaxis may be under recognised and under reported. When perioperative anaphylaxis is recognised, it would be ideal to carry out investigations firstly to confirm the diagnosis of anaphylaxis and secondly to identify the causative agent. The latter can be difficult in the context of anaesthesia where the patient is exposed to several drugs and other reagents in a short space of time. One of the interesting aspects of perioperative anaphylaxis is that there is variability in its epidemiology between different countries, for example between the United Kingdom, France, Scandinavia and Australia and New Zealand. There are currently no data from Egypt to include in such comparisons and to inform clinical practice. As well as being at risk if a drug allergen is not identified, patients can also be at risk from an incorrect allergy label. The most common example of this is penicillin allergy where fewer than 10% of patients with a history of penicillin allergy are found to be allergic. Incorrect penicillin allergy labels are potentially harmful for patients attending for surgery because the label independently increases the risk of developing infection to resistant organisms, longer hospital stays and mortality.