The impact of home treatment and self-administration of omalizumab on chronic urticaria

BACKGROUND: Patients suffering from Chronic Spontaneous Urticaria (CSU) may be recalcitrant to treatment with high dose second-generation antihistamines. These patients are, according to international guidelines, eligible to treatment with omalizumab. Treatment with omalizumab has proven to be very effective for this group of patients. Until 2018, when the self-administration of omalizumab was approved, patients have had to visit an outpatient clinic to receive the treatment. METHODS: In this study we performed a survey among 75 CSU patients who had changed their treatment from administration at an outpatient clinic to self-administration at home. RESULTS: None of the patients experienced decreased effect of the treatment with omalizumab, whereas 41.4% reported improved effect of the treatment during self-administration. The most common reported benefits for the patients were decreased travel time and the ability to choose dosing time at the day of treatment, whereas the most reported concern was fear of performing the injection. CONCLUSIONS: Patients are very content with self-administration of omalizumab. There has been no decreased effect of the treatment, and as discussed in this paper, there might be other societal benefits from self-administration. Thus, self-administration at home of omalizumab should be standard of care when using this treatment.