title: Prevention of chymopapain anaphylaxis by screening chemonucleolysis candidates with cutaneous chymopapain testing. A preliminary report.
abstract: The risk of anaphylaxis in candidates for chemonucleolysis for herniated lumbar discs is approximately 1%. An investigation was designed to eliminate or reduce the incidence of chymopapain anaphylaxis. The procedure was to restrict chemonucleolysis to patients who are prick test-negative to chymopapain at a concentration of 10 mg/ml. The authors skin-tested 292 chemonucleolysis candidates; five were positive and 287 were negative. None of the positive patients were injected with chymopapain. There were no instances of unequivocal chymopapain anaphylaxis in the skin test-negative group. This 0% incidence of anaphylaxis in skin test-negative patients was compared with a population estimate of 1%, based on historical data. The resulting value of p = 0.08 value fell short of the conventional level of significance of 0.05. The p value will reach 0.05 when the series of skin test-negative patients without anaphylaxis reaches 360. It is important that this information is readily available to physicians concerned about anaphylactic reactions to chymopapain.
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000707:Anaphylaxis / Q000139:chemically induced / Q000517:prevention & control*; D002917:Chymopapain / Q000009:adverse effects*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007404:Intervertebral Disc Chemolysis / Q000009:adverse effects; D007405:Intervertebral Disc Displacement / Q000628:therapy*; D008297:Male; D012882:Skin Tests
chemical_list: D002917:Chymopapain