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Evidence summaries

Sublingual Immunotherapy for Treating Allergic Conjunctivitis

Sublingual immunotherapy appears to be effective for ocular symptoms in patients with allergic rhinoconjunctivitis or allergic conjunctivitis compared to placebo. Level of evidence: "B"

Comment: The quality of evidence is downgraded by study limitations (unclear allocation concealment in some trials)

Summary

A Cochrane review [Abstract] 1 included 42 studies with a total of 3958 subjects. Sublingual immunotherapy (SLIT) induced a significant reduction in both total ocular symptom scores (standardised mean differences ,SMD, -0.41 95% CI -0.53 to -0.28; 36 trials, n=3399; I² = 59%) and individual ocular symptom scores for red eyes (SMD -0.33; 95% CI -0.45 to -0.22; 20 trials, n=1211), itchy eyes (SMD -0.31; 95% CI -0.42 to -0.20; 28 trials, n=3020) and watery eyes (SMD -0.23; 95% CI -0.34 to -0.11; 21 trials, n=2641) compared to placebo. Those participants having active treatment showed an increase in the threshold dose for the conjunctival allergen provocation test (SMD 0.35; 95% CI 0.00 to 0.69; 4 trials, n=250). No significant reduction was observed in ocular eye drops use (SMD -0.10; 95% CI -0.22 to 0.03; 13 trials, n=1038).

Clinical comments

Note

Date of latest search: 18.1.2011

    References

    • Calderon MA, Penagos M, Sheikh A et al. Sublingual immunotherapy for treating allergic conjunctivitis. Cochrane Database Syst Rev 2011;(7):CD007685. [PubMed]

Primary/Secondary Keywords