A Systematic Review of Autohemotherapy as a Treatment for Urticaria and Eczema

Devon D Brewer

doi:10.7759/cureus.233

Abstract

The injection of autologous whole blood or serum, known as autohemotherapy, was a standard dermatologic treatment in the early 1900s. Conventional dermatologists eventually abandoned autohemotherapy due to a lack of supporting evidence, even though there had been no formal attempts to assess its effectiveness. Recently, several investigators have evaluated autohemotherapy as a treatment for urticaria and eczema. I conducted a systematic review of the literature on autohemotherapy, focusing on treatment outcomes. The available evidence indicates that autohemotherapy does not have major side effects, and that minor adverse effects are short-lived and similar in frequency to those from placebo injections. Overall, autohemotherapy tends to be somewhat more effective in reducing symptoms than control therapy across studies, although the advantage is not statistically reliable. Urticaria patients who test positive on the autologous serum skin test display a moderately better response to autohemotherapy than patients who test negative. Based on the limited evidence available, autologous whole blood and autologous serum injections appear to have similar effectiveness. Furthermore, the severity of symptoms prior to treatment is not consistently related to patients' apparent response to autohemotherapy.

Highlights

Autohemotherapy involves injecting autologous whole blood or autologous serum, typically into muscle
Autohemotherapy became a standard treatment for many dermatologic disorders, including urticaria and eczema, in Europe, North America, and Japan [3,4,5]
To identify potentially relevant reports, I searched Scopus, which covers all journals included in PubMed and EMBASE as well as other sources, and Google Scholar with the following search terms: (autohemotherapy OR autohaemotherapy OR ("autologous whole blood" AND inject*) OR ("autologous serum" AND inject*)) AND

Summary

Introduction

Autohemotherapy involves injecting autologous whole blood or autologous serum, typically into muscle. In 1913, Ravaut [1] and Spiethoff [2] described their use of autohemotherapy for various dermatologic conditions. Autohemotherapy became a standard treatment for many dermatologic disorders, including urticaria and eczema, in Europe, North America, and Japan [3,4,5]. Autohemotherapy fell into disrepute because of a lack of rigorous supporting evidence [6]. There seems to have been no attempt at the time to appraise the therapy systematically. Autohemotherapy has been used to treat dermatologic and other diseases, mainly by alternative medical providers, especially in Europe [7] and Latin America

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Conclusion