Clinical and demographic characteristics of fatal anaphylaxis in Spain (1998‐2011): A comparison between a series from the hospital system and a national forensic series

Abstract

The estimated frequency of fatal anaphylaxis in Spain was among the lowest reported. Future studies of fatal anaphylaxis should use databases from different origins in order to show the considerable heterogeneity in this type of death.

Global patterns of drug allergy-induced fatalities: a wake-up call to prevent avoidable deaths

“…All documents were based on retrospective data, 5 (23.8%) covering more than 15 years of study period [2,8,14,16,23]. Except for Africa and Antarctica, all continents have been covered by the manuscripts selected, 8 (38%) from North America [5,8,11–13,17,19,22], 2 (9.5%) from South America [21,24], 7 (33.3%) from Europe [2,4,14,15 ▪▪ ,20,23,25], 1 (5%) from Asia and North America [18] and 3 (14.3%) from Oceania [6,9,16]. Fifteen (71%) of manuscripts were published by at least one allergist [2,4–6,8,9,13,15 ▪▪ ,17,19,21–25], 6 (28.6%) by at least one pathologist [11–13,16,17,25] and 2 (9.5%) by forensics [18,20].…”

“…Fifteen (71%) of manuscripts were published by at least one allergist [2,4–6,8,9,13,15 ▪▪ ,17,19,21–25], 6 (28.6%) by at least one pathologist [11–13,16,17,25] and 2 (9.5%) by forensics [18,20]. Thirteen (62%) were published in allergy journals [2,5,6,8,9,15 ▪▪ ,17,19,21–25], 6 (28.6%) in pathology and/or forensics journals [4,12,13,16,18,20], 1 (5%) in a general medical journal [11] and 1 (5%) in a clinical epidemiology journal [14] (Table 1). DAF rate has been estimated at 0.13 [9] to 0.53/10 6 population/year, more frequent in France [2].…”

“…Anaesthetic drugs were the leading suspected drug in 3 (14%) [4,15 ▪▪ ,16], and radio-contrast media in 2 (10%) [14,17]. NSAIDs were cited as a cause of DAF in 8 (38%) articles [5,6,8,9,14,15 ▪▪ ,20,25] but never as leading cause. The route of administration of the culprit drugs was specified in four articles (19%) [11,12,14,18], and all reported more fatal reactions following an intravenous or intramuscular administration of drugs than following oral administration (Table 2).…”

Fatal asthma: Learning from tragedies

“…Key words were “frightening”, “uncertainty”, “anxiety” and “frustration”. This is perhaps not unexpected given what we know about fatal anaphylaxis . This patient perspective is important as healthcare professionals need to understand the impact of anaphylaxis on patients to optimize management.…”

Moving forward with improved food labelling for consumers with allergies

“…Tejedor‐Alonso has investigated the characteristics of fatal anaphylaxis in Spain . They use codes relating to anaphylaxis in the Spanish Hospital and National Institute of Toxicology and Forensic Sciences databases to find fatal cases in the community and hospitals.…”