Frequency of positive oral food challenges and their outcomes in the allergy unit of a tertiary-care pediatric hospital

Main Article Content

Giulia Ballini
Chiara Gavagni
Caterina Guidotti
Giulia Ciolini
Giulia Liccioli
Mattia Giovannini
Lucrezia Sarti
Daniele Ciofi
Elio Novembre
Francesca Mori
Simona Barni

Keywords

children, food allergy, food protein–induced enterocolitis syndrome, IgE-mediated, oral food challenge, trigger food

Abstract

Introduction and objective: The oral food challenge (OFC) is the gold standard to diagnose food allergy (FA); however, it is not a procedure free from the risk of having significant allergic reactions, even life-threatening.


The aims of our study were to evaluate the frequency of positive OFCs performed in children with a suspected diagnosis of IgE- and non-IgE–mediated (food protein–induced enterocolitis syndrome (FPIES)) FA and how the failed challenges were managed.


Materials and methods: A retrospective chart review was done on all children who have had OFCs in a tertiary-care pediatric allergy unit from 2017 to 2019.


Results: 682 patients were enrolled and 2206 challenges were performed: 2058 (93%) for IgE-mediated FA and 148 (7%) for FPIES. There were 262 (11.8%) challenge failures. The transfer to the emergency department was required 3 times (1.1%). None of the failed challenges resulted in death or hospitalization and 13.3% challenges did not require any treatment.


Conclusions: Our findings confirm that food challenges can be performed safely in a specialized setting by well-trained personnel; all food challenge reactions, even the most serious, were reversible, thanks to a prompt recognition and treatment that generally did not worsen over time.

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