Safety and efficacy evaluation of sublingual allergen-specific immunotherapy a retrospective, multicenter study

Abstract

In recent years, several controlled studies have proved the efficacy and safety of sublingual specific immunotherapy, as a possible alternative to the classic subcutaneous route of administration. This alternative option has been officially confirmed by the recent WHO position paper "Allergen Immunotherapy: Therapeutic Vaccines for Allergic Diseases'". Since sublingual immunotherapy has now been widely used for years, we carried out an open, multicentric, retrospective study to investigate the efficacy and safety of this form of treatment in a large number of patients. To this end, we studied 302 subjects undergoing sublingual immunotherapy for at least three months with different allergen compositions. Notwithstanding the obvious limitations due to the study design, this survey has confirmed the high efficacy and safety of this form of treatment, as already reported in previous controlled studies. Sublingual immunotherapy appears to be a simple, well-tolerated and effective method of treatment of allergen-specific diseases.