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Editorial| Volume 26, ISSUE 8, P561-562, October 2015

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Efficacy but not effectiveness of sublingual immunotherapy for grass pollen allergy: Time to avoid waste in health-care expenditure

  • Salvatore Corrao
    Correspondence
    Corresponding author at: Dipartimento BioMedico di Medicina Interna e Specialistica (Di.Bi.M.I.S), Via del Vespro, 141, 90127 Palermo, Italy.
    Affiliations
    Dipartimento BioMedico di Medicina Interna e Specialistica (Di.Bi.M.I.S), Università degli Studi di Palermo, Italy

    Centre of Research for Effectiveness and Appropriateness in Medicine (C.R.E.A.M.), Italy

    National Relevance Hospital Trust ARNAS Civico, Di Cristina e Benfratelli, Palermo, Italy
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  • Danilo Di Bona
    Affiliations
    Unità Operativa di Immunoematologia e Medicina Trasfusionale Azienda, Ospedaliera Universitaria Policlinico di Palermo, Italy

    Dipartimento di Scienze Statistiche e Matematiche “S. Vianelli”, Università degli Studi di Palermo, Italy
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  • Gabriele Di Lorenzo
    Affiliations
    Dipartimento BioMedico di Medicina Interna e Specialistica (Di.Bi.M.I.S), Università degli Studi di Palermo, Italy
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Published:September 13, 2015DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejim.2015.08.018
Efficacy but not effectiveness of sublingual immunotherapy for grass pollen allergy: Time to avoid waste in health-care expenditure
Previous ArticleContents
Next ArticleThyroid disorders and gastrointestinal and liver dysfunction: A state of the art review
      Last June JAMA Internal Medicine published an excellent systematic review and meta-analysis of clinical trials of sublingual immunotherapy for grass pollen allergy [
      • Di Bona D.
      • Plaia A.
      • Leto-Barone M.S.
      • La Piana S.
      • Di Lorenzo G.
      Efficacy of grass pollen allergen sublingual immunotherapy tablets for seasonal allergic rhinoconjunctivitis: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
      JAMA Intern Med. Aug. 1, 2015; 175: 1301-1309
      ]. The team of Di Lorenzo of the University of Palermo reached an important result indicating a small, unimpressive effect of sublingual immunotherapy. These findings probably justify no longer this kind of intervention to be paid by any European health care system. Accordingly, the Editor of JAMA has thrown a “caveat emptor” [
      • O'Malley P.G.
      Caveat emptor on sublingual immunotherapy.
      JAMA Intern Med. Aug. 1, 2015; 175: 1310
      ] that is similar to a scream towards public welfare managers.

      Keywords

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      References

        • Di Bona D.
        • Plaia A.
        • Leto-Barone M.S.
        • La Piana S.
        • Di Lorenzo G.
        Efficacy of grass pollen allergen sublingual immunotherapy tablets for seasonal allergic rhinoconjunctivitis: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
        JAMA Intern Med. Aug. 1, 2015; 175: 1301-1309
        View in Article
        • O'Malley P.G.
        Caveat emptor on sublingual immunotherapy.
        JAMA Intern Med. Aug. 1, 2015; 175: 1310
        View in Article
        • Corrao S.
        • Arcoraci V.
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        Evidence-based knowledge management: an approach to effectively promote good health-care decision-making in the information era.
        Intern Emerg Med. Apr 2009; 4: 99-106
        View in Article
        • Di Bona D.
        • Plaia A.
        • Leto-Barone M.S.
        • La Piana S.
        • Di Lorenzo G.
        Efficacy of subcutaneous and sublingual immunotherapy with grass allergens for seasonal allergic rhinitis: a meta-analysis-based comparison.
        J Allergy Clin Immunol. Nov 2012; 130: 1097-1107
        View in Article

      Article info

      Publication history

      Published online: September 13, 2015
      Accepted: August 31, 2015
      Received in revised form: August 28, 2015
      Received: August 11, 2015

      Identification

      DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejim.2015.08.018

      Copyright

      © 2015 European Federation of Internal Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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