The POLISMAIL lesson: sublingual immunotherapy may be prescribed also in polysensitized patients

Polysensitization is a feature of allergic rhinitis (AR) that significantly impairs the quality of life (QoL) of AR patients. Allergen-specific immunotherapy is the only causal therapy for AR. However, the polysensitization phenomenon may represent a crucial obstacle as far as it concerns the choice of the allergen extract which should be used for immunotherapy. Therefore, a real-life based multi-centre study, named POLISMAIL, has been designed which aims at evaluating the behaviour of some allergists managing polysensitized AR patients. The effect of two-year SLIT treatment in those patients was also evaluated. A single allergen extract was used for two-thirds of patients, whereas a mix of two allergens was chosen for the remaining patients. The severity grade of AR and the type of diagnosis were significantly improved by 2-year SLIT. In addition, SLIT significantly improved QoL. Both outcomes confirm that SLIT with one or two allergen extracts achieves a significant improvement in polysensitized patients. In conclusion, the POLISMAIL study demonstrates that polysensitization should not represent a counter-indication for prescribing immunotherapy. The choice to limit SLIT to 1-2 allergen extracts was sufficient and effective in improving symptoms and QoL.