Anesthetics: a risk of allergies in about 5% of patients

About 5% of patients requiring anesthesia for surgery, pose a risk of allergy to anesthetic agents, suggests a Spanish study published in the "Allergy" journal.

Allergic reactions occurring during anesthesia are a medical risk to patients and a medico-legal risk for anesthesiologists. Currently, tests to anesthetic injections performed during the pre-anesthetic consultation is prescribed mainly to patients with a history of adverse reactions to anesthetics. However, no study has determined the number of patients without a history making these tests and the percentage of those with a positive response to the risk of allergy.

To fill this gap, Dr. E. Tamayo anesthesia and intensive care at the University Hospital of Valladolid (Spain) and colleagues department, conducted a study of 424 patients in a pre-anesthesia consultation in two hospitals in Valladolid. Voluntary patients were tested bites anesthetic to assess their allergic potential of 30 different anesthetic substances.

According to their results, allergy tests were positive in 20 patients (4.7%) for at least one anesthetic agent analyzed, neuromuscular blocking agents are the most common (2.8%).

After analysis of risk factors (age, sex, history of allergies), only the presence of a history of allergy to anesthetics has been a predisposing factor to the risk of allergy to anesthetic with an increased risk of 6 13 times.

This study, the first to assess the prevalence of positive tests to anesthetic agents in a general population of patients undergoing surgery, suggests that about 5% of patients are concerned, the authors conclude. However, they emphasize that there is a controversy regarding the use of tests of anesthetic injections due to a number of false positives.