Serum sickness after wasp venom immunotherapy: clinical and biological study.

Abstract

We describe a case of a man who developed serum sickness during wasp venom immunotherapy. Remarkable features were unusually severe neurological symptoms, multiple relapses in the absence of rechallenge, parallel course between clinical symptoms, serum levels of specific reagins and their antibodies, and a dramatic response to plasma exchange therapy. Desensitization is widely used and can cause a wide range of adverse effects; however, systemic vasculitis is a very rare complication and we are not aware of any case similar to ours, with serum sickness after injection of highly purified hymenoptera antigen. Clinicians should be aware of such a possibility.