ABSTRACT
I. INTRODUCTION Allergic rhinitis, the most common allergic disease, affects about 20% of the adult population (1). The disease, which predominantly affects children and young adults, impairs both physical and cognitive functions and quality of life (2). Furthermore, allergic rhinitis constitutes a major risk factor for development of allergic asthma, with approximately 20% of patients with allergic rhinitis developing asthma later in life (2-4); patients with bronchial hyperreactivity are more likely to develop asthma (5,6). Management of allergic rhinoconjunctivitis is based on combining three essential interventions: allergen avoidance, pharmacological treatment, and allergen-specific immunotherapy with careful education of the patient on the nature of the disease. Education should include identification of triggers and relievers, step-ups and step-downs of drug treatment, and recognition of disease involvement of the lower airways (2). Nonspecific interventions are not
restricted to the causative allergen, as is the case with pharmacological treatment and avoidance of nonspecific irritants. Specific interventions include avoidance of the causative allergen and allergen-specific immunotherapy. This chapter deals only with subcutaneous injection immunotherapy. Oral and inhaled routes of immunotherapy (local) are dealt with in Chapter 33.
