Health Boards
Fri-23-03-2018, 17:37 PM
Not sure if it's the same type of treatment but I've just been reading there has been a death and thought it may be of interest.
Source: jiaci.org
Quote:
Apitherapy is the use of substances from honeybees (eg, honey, propolis, royal jelly, or even venom), to relieve various medical conditions. One type of apitherapy is live bee acupuncture, which involves applying the stinging bee directly to the relevant sites according to the specific disease. This practice is often performed in private health care centers or by nonmedical practitioners. Although some benefits of apitherapy have been reported, published evidence of its effectiveness and safety is limited, scarce, and heterogeneous.
We report the case of a 55-year-old woman who had been attending apitherapy sessions every 4 weeks for 2 years with good tolerance. She decided to receive apitherapy to improve muscular contractures and stress. She had no clinical record of any other diseases (eg, asthma, heart disease), other risk factors, previous reactions of any kind with hymenoptera, or atopy. During an apitherapy session, she developed wheezing, dyspnea, and sudden loss of consciousness immediately after a live bee sting.
In vivo tests could not be performed because the patient had eceived antihistamine and her clinical situation was problematic. The patient died some weeks later of multiorgan failure. Persistent hypotension during severe anaphylaxis had caused a massive watershed stroke and permanent coma with multiorgan impairment. To our knowledge, this is the first reported case of death by bee venom apitherapy due to complications of severe anaphylaxis in a confirmed sensitized patient who was previously tolerant.
Our data enable us to conclude that measures to identify sensitized patients at risk should be implemented before each apitherapy sting. Patients should be fully informed of the dangers of apitherapy before undergoing it. Apitherapy practitioners should be trained in managing severe reactions and should be able to ensure they perform their techniques in a safe environment, with adequate facilities for management of anaphylaxis and rapid access to an intensive care unit in order to prevent suboptimal management, such as delays in treatment. However, these measures may not be possible. Therefore, the risks of undergoing apitherapy may exceed the presumed benefits, leading us to conclude that this practice is both unsafe and unadvisable.
Source: jiaci.org