Controversy
Adrenaline syringes are vastly over prescribed
D J UnsworthSouthmead
Hospital, Westbury-on-Trym, Bristol BS10 5NB, UK
Correspondence to:
Accepted
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
 |
Introduction |
|---|
Allergy is being seen more and more commonly. A recent review
of accident and emergency admissions in England reported 415 anaphylactic cases (adults and children) from 100 000 referrals in
1991/92, but 876 in 1994/95.1 Death following anaphylaxis is most feared but fortunately remains a very rare event, currently estimated at less than one case per year per million of the UK population.2 There is always the instinct that these fatal incidents could and indeed should have been avoided or prevented, especially in children. A widely quoted North American study of 13 children and adolescents following fatal or near fatal food related
anaphylaxis,3 concluded that "epinephrine should be prescribed and kept available for all children and adolescents with IgE
mediated food allergies". Applied literally, that is a huge number of
cases. A telephone survey estimated a 1% prevalence for peanut allergy
alone in the United States.4 Detailed review of data
referred to above3
CiteULike 
Complore 
Connotea 
Del.icio.us 
Digg 
Reddit 
Technorati What's this?
Relevant Articles
-
Arch. Dis. Child. 2001 85: 317.[Extract] [Full Text]
-
Rapid responses
Arch. Dis. Child. 2001 85: 251.[Extract] [Full Text]
- An evidence and consensus based guideline for acute diarrhoea management
- K Armon, T Stephenson, R MacFaul, P Eccleston, U Werneke, and HARRY BAUMER
Arch. Dis. Child. 2001 85: 132-142.[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
-
Arch. Dis. Child. 2001 84: 0.[Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]
This article has been cited by other articles:
-
McLean-Tooke, A. P C, Bethune, C. A, Fay, A. C, Spickett, G. P
(2003). Adrenaline in the treatment of anaphylaxis: what is the evidence?. BMJ
327: 1332-1335
[Full Text] -
Johnston, S. L, Unsworth, J., Gompels, M. M
(2003). Lesson of the week: Adrenaline given outside the context of life threatening allergic reactions. BMJ
326: 589-590
[Full Text] -
Clark, A T, Ewan, P W
(2003). Food allergy in childhood. Arch. Dis. Child.
88: 79-81
[Full Text] -
Blyth, T P, Sundrum, R
(2002). Adrenaline autoinjectors and schoolchildren: a community based study. Arch. Dis. Child.
86: 26-27
[Abstract] [Full Text] -
WOLFF, T, RUMNEY, C
(2001). Adrenaline syringes: community perspective. Arch. Dis. Child.
85: 510g-510
[Full Text] -
ABAY, J, UNSWORTH, D J
(2001). Appropriate prescription of epinephrine remains the best available treatment Reply. Arch. Dis. Child.
85: 510i-510
[Full Text]
eLetters:
Read all eLetters
- Adrenaline syringes: community perspective
- Toni Wolff
- ADC Online, 29 May 2001 [Full text]
- Controversies in paediatrics?
- Jonathan Hourihane
- ADC Online, 11 Jun 2001 [Full text]
- Appropriate prescription of epinephrine remains the best available treatment.
- June ABAY
- ADC Online, 4 Jul 2001 [Full text]
- The author responds
- DJ Unsworth
- ADC Online, 3 Aug 2001 [Full text]
- Prescribing epinephrine alone is not the complete answer to managing food allergy
- Pamela W Ewan, et al.
- ADC Online, 17 Apr 2002 [Full text]
- Full Text
- Full Text (PDF)
- Submit a response
- Read responses to this article
- Alert me when this article is cited
- Alert me when eLetters are posted
- Alert me if a correction is posted
- Citation Map
Services
- Email this link to a friend
- Similar articles in ADC Online
- Similar articles in PubMed
- Add article to my folders
- Download to citation manager
- Request Permissions
Citing Articles
Google Scholar
PubMed
Topic Collections
-
Diabetes
-
Immunology (including allergy)
-
Child health
-
Hypertension
-
Adolescent health
- Relevant Articles
Bookmark with
Register for free content
The full back archive is now available for all BMJ Journals. Institutional subscribers may access the entire archive as part of their subscription. Personal subscribers will also have access to all content when logged in. Non-subscribers who register have free access to all articles published before 2006 right back to volume 1 issue 1. Register here to access the free archive of all BMJ Journals.
Don't forget to sign up for content alerts so you keep up to date with all the articles as they are published.
