Unnecessary abdominal interventions in patients with hereditary angioedema

Hereditary angioedema (HAE) is a rare genetic disorder that leads to recurrent development of mucosal and dermal swelling. It is mediated by bradykinin, and can affect virtually any part of the human body, including the gastrointestinal tract, the extremities, and the laryngeal and pharyngeal regions. Safe and potent drugs are available for acute and prophylactic treatment of HAE. Owing to its unspecific symptoms and unique manifestations, HAE is often misdiagnosed and treated incorrectly. Abdominal edema in particular can resemble appendicitis or cholecystitis, and is therefore often treated with unnecessary surgical procedures. We performed a questionnaire study to quantify this issue.

We designed questionnaires for HAE patients and probands without HAE. The patient-control ratio was chosen at 1 : 2.

Compared with the general population, HAE patients are subject to a significantly greater number of invasive diagnostic and therapeutic interventions. Our study showed that the HAE patients were 2.5 times more likely to undergo abdominal surgery (including gynecological and urological procedures) than the individuals without HAE (p = 0.007). The number of operations per patient correlated with the period (number of years) between the onset of symptoms and diagnosis (correlation coefficient 0.511; Spearman). Furthermore, twice as many appendectomies were performed on HAE patients (18.9 % vs. 37.7 %). Our results also showed that the HAE patients were 2.3 times more likely to undergo a gastroscopy than the control group without HAE (p = 0.003).

Patients with rare diseases such as HAE not only suffer from the effects of the disease itself. The conditions are often misdiagnosed for years owing to the general lack of knowledge about such diseases and unspecific manifestations. This leads not only to erroneous and ineffective treatment, but also to needless invasive diagnostic and therapeutic medical procedures. It is therefore important to increase the general knowledge and awareness of orphan diseases such as HAE with a view to improving diagnosis and treatment, minimizing the patients' suffering and enhancing their quality of life.