What are the Canadian Expert Consensus Recommendations for the Management of Anaphylaxis?
This summary is based on the Position Paper provided by the Canadian Medical Association (CMA): management of anaphylaxis in primary care: Canadian expert consensus recommendations. The article was retrieved from the CMA Infobase: Clinical Practice Guidelines Database (CPGs)
Context
Anaphylaxis is often managed inadequately. The authors used findings from a systematic review of gaps in anaphylaxis management to develop evidence-based recommendations for gaps rated as clinically important by a panel of Canadian allergy experts.
Key Messages
Thirty unique physician gaps from the systematic review were categorized according to gaps of knowledge and anaphylaxis practice behaviors. The panel rated diagnosis of anaphylaxis, and when and how to use epinephrine auto-injectors as clinically important knowledge gaps; and rated infrequent or delayed epinephrine administration, low rate of auto-injector prescription, and infrequent or no referrals to allergy specialists after a reaction as important practice behavior gaps. Evidence from four guidelines was used to support the consensus recommendation statements for three resulting categories of gap themes: anaphylaxis management, epinephrine use, and follow-up care.
The authors developed an educational resource for primary care physicians and allergists to better understand how to manage patients with anaphylaxis. Next steps include testing our findings against observed data in primary care settings and to develop other strategies or tools to overcome gaps in anaphylaxis management.