Evaluation of the need for routine preoperative latex allergy tests in children.

Background: Recently, there was a great increase in allergic reactions to latex and this brought relatively more concern to the latex allergy. In this prospective study we aimed to identify the frequency of latex allergy in preoperative patients, and tried to clarify whether it is necessary to perform latex allergy tests routinely in the preoperative period or not.

Methods: A total of 188 children, aged 1-14, who were admitted for various operations, were randomly included in this study and of them, 181 completed the study. Latex specific history was taken from all patients. Latex skin prick tests, challenge tests with latex gloves, total IgE and latex specific IgE measurements were performed.

Results: Of 181 children, two (1.1%) had positive latex skin prick tests. Latex challenge tests were negative in all children. Latex specific IgE was positive in 12 children (6.6%) as class II or higher, but no patient had allergic reactions in operations. History of repeated operations was a risk factor for latex sensitization. The risk was higher in the presence of both history of repeated operations and history of allergic disease. However, the risk was not higher in patients with the history of only allergic disease, compared to ones who had a history of neither repeated operations nor allergic disease.

Conclusion: We conclude that routine preoperative latex allergy tests seem to be not necessary because of no allergic reactions during operation in spite of the sensitization of 6.6% detected by latex specific IgE. However, this should be investigated in larger studies.