Omalizumab treatment in adolescents with chronic spontaneous urticaria: Efficacy and safety.
BACKGROUND
Omalizumab is useful as an add-on treatment in patients unresponsive to high doses of second-generation antihistamines. This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of omalizumab treatment in adolescents with refractory chronic spontaneous urticaria (CSU).


METHODS
CSU patients aged 12-18 years old with the diagnosis of symptomatic CSU and unresponsive to classical treatment were included in the study. All patients had an urticaria-activity-score (UAS7) of ≥16 or and were treated with 300mg omalizumab every four weeks. The degree of response was classified into complete, partial and non-responders due to UAS7.


RESULTS
A total of 29 patients were evaluated. The median age and symptom onset age of the patients was 15.2 (IQR, 12.8-16.5) years and 14.0 (IQR, 11.8-15.9) years, respectively. The median duration of urticaria was eight (IQR, 4-24) months at admission. Eleven (37.9%) patients had angioedema and ten (34.5%) patients had concomitant allergic diseases. The median age at the beginning of treatment with omalizumab was 15.4 (IQR, 12.9-16.9) years. The median symptom duration was 12 (IQR, 6.5-27.5) months before the omalizumab treatment. Twenty-eight (96.5%) of the patients (89.6% complete, 6.9% partial) achieved response; however, one patient was a non-responder (3.5%). The adverse effect was observed in one (3.4%) patient as angioedema after the third dose. Twenty-three patients were followed up for a median of 18 (IQR, 13-27) months. Relapse was observed in three (13%) patients.


CONCLUSIONS
Omalizumab is considered as an effective and safe treatment for CSU in adolescents. Relapses mostly occur within the first year after the cessation of treatment.
['Ocak|M|M|', 'Soyer|O|O|', 'Buyuktiryaki|B|B|', 'Sekerel|B E|BE|', 'Sahiner|U M|UM|']
D000293:Adolescent D018926:Anti-Allergic Agents D000080223:Chronic Urticaria D005260:Female D006801:Humans D008297:Male D000069444:Omalizumab D016896:Treatment Outcome
Omalizumab Adolescents Efficacy Safety Chronic urticaria