Allergic reactions to anesthesia
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Anesthesia hypersensitivity | |
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Clinical diagnosis | |
Treatment | Epinephrine, withdrawal of offending agent, airway management |
Frequency | 1 in 10,000 procedures |
The incidence of life-threatening
Successful immediate treatment requires prompt recognition by the attending
Subsequent investigation aims to determine the responsible agent to allow its future avoidance. Skin testing is often useful to identify potentially cross-reactive compounds and appropriate therapeutic alternatives. This is done weeks after the initial reaction to allow the immune system to reset itself. However, skin testing can be misleading in giving false positive and false negative results.
Anaphylaxis during anesthesia
Although complications during anesthesia are rare, potentially life-threatening consequences may occur if an anaphylactic reaction develops. The severity of the reaction whilst under anesthesia is because the anesthetist is only made aware of the allergy when it is severe enough to compromise the cardiovascular system and the respiratory system. At this stage, there is little time to manage the situation and recognise the severity of the condition.[5]
The immediate management of the issue consists of three processes:
- The withdrawal of the substances
- Interrupting the effects of the preformed substances released in response to toxin presentation
- Prevention of further substance release
Since the full withdrawal of the offending substance is near impossible, the administration of adrenaline is the main treatment to counteract the effects. Once the patient is stable they will need close observation for 24 hours.[5]
References
- PMID 20609862.
- S2CID 18214065.
- ^ "World Allergy Organization". www.worldallergy.org. Retrieved 2016-05-17.[permanent dead link]
- ^ "Possible complications | All About Anaesthesia". allaboutanaesthesia.com.au. Retrieved 2016-05-17.
- ^ a b Dippenaar, JM (March 2015). "Allergic Reactions and Anaphylaxis During Anaesthesia" (PDF). Current Allergy & Clinical Immunology. 28. Archived from the original (PDF) on 10 September 2016. Retrieved 16 May 2016.