2022 Volume 36 Issue 5 Pages 547-553
The Japanese Guidelines for Food Allergy 2021 define oral immunotherapy (OIT) as a "treatment for patients who are not expected to acquire tolerance naturally, after confirming the threshold for induction of symptoms by oral food challenge test (OFC) in advance." Patients are given continuous intake of the causative food orally under the physician's guidance. The ultimate goal of treatment is to acquire tolerance to causative foods after a state of desensitization or sustained unresponsiveness. Although the guidelines do not recommend OIT as a general approach to food allergy, its efficacy and safety have been evaluated based on clinical questions (CQ). Furthermore, the future application of OIT treatment is expected.
