Honey bee venom re-challenge during specific immunotherapy: prolonged cardio-pulmonary resuscitation allowed survival in a case of near fatal anaphylaxis

Abstract

Background: Specific immunotherapy for patients with honey bee hypersensitivity is commonly applied. Re-challenge with venom is performed to prove protection in individual cases. Case presenation: We report a case of near fatal anaphylaxis with asystole for 24 min in a 35-years-old patient with mastocytosis after honey bee sting challenge, despite 5-years of specific immunotherapy. Successful cardio-pulmonary resuscitation was applied for 32 min. Conclusion: This intervention demonstrates, that in anaphylaxis with cardio-vascular arrest, prolonged cardio-pulmonary resuscitation for up to 40 min may be appropriate to overcome the half-life of massively released histamine. Failure of specific immunotherapy was possibly due to sensitization to the allergen Api m10, potentially underrepresented in commercial honey bee venom extracts. Molecular analyses may provide additional clues to the potentially unsuccessful outcome of venom specific immunotherapy, especially in high-risk patients such as mastocytosis.