Egg-allergic children who undergo egg oral immunotherapy (eOIT) and achieve sustained unresponsiveness (SU) eat more egg and have fewer symptoms five years later, according to a study presented at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology, held from Feb. 22 to 25 in San Francisco.

Edwin Kim, M.D., from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and colleagues randomly assigned egg-allergic children (age 5 to 11 years) to eOIT (40 children, treated up to four years) or placebo (15 children). Participants who passed a 10-g oral food challenge (OFC) on therapy were considered desensitized; to determine SU, the children underwent a 10-g OFC and open feeding four to six weeks after therapy.

The researchers found that 50 percent of eOIT participants were classified as SU at study completion; 28 and 22 percent of participants were desensitized and not desensitized, respectively. At year 5, 93 and 64 percent of eOIT participants and placebo participants, respectively, were ingesting some egg. One hundred percent of SU participants were ingesting concentrated and baked egg compared with 43, 17, and 36 percent of the desensitized, not desensitized, and placebo groups, respectively. Compared with the SU group, all non-SU groups had decreased frequency and amount of egg ingestion and increased symptoms.

"These results further support the effectiveness of eOIT as a safe way of desensitizing children and youth with egg allergy," Kim said in a statement.

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