ObjectiveTo systematically review the efficacy and safety of dust mite sublingual immunotherapy (SLIT) in the treatment of children with allergic rhinitis.
MethodsRandomized controlled trials (RCTs) about SLIT treating allergic rhinitis in pediatric patients was searched in PubMed, EMbase, CBM, Ovid, The Cochrane Library (Issue 5, 2014), CNKI, VIP and WanFang Data from inception to May 2014. Two reviewers independently screened literature according to inclusion and exclusion criteria, extracted data, and assessed methodological quality of included studies. Then meta-analysis was conducted using RevMan 5.3 software.
ResultsA total of nine RCTs including 663 patients were finally included. The results of meta-analysis indicated that:the trial group was superior to the control group in reducing the scores of drug use (SMD=-0.61, 95%CI-0.94 to-0.27, P=0.000 4) and mite-specific serum IgE levels (follow-up time > 22 weeks:SMD=0.71, 95%CI 0.31 to 1.12, P=0.000 5). However, no significant difference was found between the two groups in the scores of nasal symptoms (SMD=0.06, 95%CI-0.13 to 0.25, P=0.55) and the incidence of adverse reaction (OR=1.3, 95%CI 0.89 to 1.90, P=0.17).
ConclusionSLIT could decrease the use frequency of antihistamine, β-agonist and nasal spray steroids, and it has less adverse reaction and better safety in the treatment of children with allergic rhinitis. But SLIT could neither effectively alleviate nasal symptoms nor reduce mite-specific serum IgE levels of pediatric patients with allergic rhinitis in a short time.
