Patients with moderate to severe AR are treated according to current rhinitis management. There are chances that guidelines may be inadequately controlled. These patients are at risk of severe comorbidities, such as asthma and chronic sinusitis. Omalizumab is being developed as a new choice for the treatment of AR. Therefore, the researchers undertook a meta-analysis to assess the efficacy and safety of omalizumab in AR treatment.
The researchers systematically searched three online databases for randomized controlled studies on AR treatment with omalizumab. Our evaluation outcomes were symptom scores, medication efficacy, combined symptom, medication scores, and adverse events.
The results of our meta-analysis showed that there were statistically significant differences between the omalizumab group and the control group in the following aspects: daily nasal symptom score; daily ocular symptom score; daily nasal medication symptom scores; the proportion of days of emergency drug use; rhinoconjunctivitis-specific quality of life questionnaire; and overall evaluation.
The study concluded that omalizumab is effective and relatively safe in patients with AR; omalizumab used in conjunction with particular immunotherapy has shown promising results, especially in reducing adverse events.
Reference: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1945892419884774
