Compliance, efficacy, and safety of subcutaneous and sublingual immunotherapy in children with allergic rhinitis.

BACKGROUND Although previous studies had confirmed the effectiveness and safety of subcutaneous immunotherapy (SCIT) and sublingual immunotherapy (SLIT), respectively, direct head-to-head comparison of SCIT versus SLIT is sparse. We aimed to compare the efficacy, safety and compliance of SCIT and SLIT in allergic rhinitis (AR) children. METHODS This study is a prospective, open-label and single center study performed from June, 2017 and June, 2018. A total of 325 children were grouped into SLIT, Alutard group (SCIT1) and NovoHelisen Depot (NHD) group (SCIT2) according to the parents' wishes. The adherence and reasons for dropout were recoded. The efficacy of SLIT and SCIT was evaluated by a combined symptom medication score. Adverse events were recorded and graded during the whole treatment. RESULTS The compliance rate was higher in SCIT group compared with SLIT group (P<0.05). The total nasal symptom score (TNSS), rescue medication score (RMS) and symptom medication score (SMS) after 6, 12 months and 2 years' treatment were lower in SCIT group compared with SLIT group (P<0.05). But the scores between Alutard and NHD group were not significantly different. The occurrence of adverse events in SCIT group was significantly higher compared with SLIT group (P<0.05). CONCLUSION Our results suggested SCIT is more effective compared with SLIT to a certain degree, whereas SLIT had less adverse events compared with SCIT. The AIT routes can be chosen according to personal specific conditions.