Real-life experience with hazelnut oral immunotherapy

Hazelnut oral immunotherapy (H-OIT), a promising alternative to hazelnut-free diet for patients with hazelnut allergy, has not been extensively studied.

To investigate the effectiveness of H-OIT for children with hazelnut allergy.

Retrospective medical record review of children treated by H-OIT in the University Hospital of Lyon (France) was reported. Clinical and laboratory data were collected, and the satisfaction of the children treated by H-OIT was evaluated using a questionnaire.

A total of 70 patients treated by H-OIT for an immunoglobulin E-mediated hazelnut allergy (94.3%) or an immunoglobulin E sensitization to hazelnut (5.7%) were included. Among these, 22.9% entered the maintenance phase at 1-year consultation and 60.0% entered the maintenance phase during the study period. At home, 57.1% of the patients experienced at least 1 adverse effect and 2.9% experienced severe systemic allergic reactions. Among the 212 oral food challenges conducted at hospital, 3.3% led to severe systemic reactions and epinephrine was used 4 times. A total of 21.4% of children discontinued treatment; aversion to hazelnut was the main reason. There were 42 children aged 8 years or more and their parents who answered the questionnaire. H-OIT was considered a strain for children but effective and was recommended to other children with allergy.

H-OIT seemed to be effective and well accepted by children. This is counterbalanced by a high rate of H-OIT discontinuation, mainly owing to aversion to hazelnut, and an important rate of adverse reactions, which are however mostly mild.

ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT04841850.