What is Hay fever?
Hay fever Injections – Who, When and Why?
Hay fever is caused by your immune system reacting unnecessarily to pollens. Your immune system
is such an important part of your body that it will preferentially use up a lot of your energy uselessly
‘Fighting off’ pollens which it interprets as attacking you.
Trees can begin to produce pollen in late January and some grasses continue producing pollen until
September so depending on what you’re allergic to, the season can be many months
Hay fever Treatments
Non-medical treatments:
- Stay indoors on high pollen count days
- Reduce bare skin as much as possible – the allergy can be made worse by pollen on the skin –
not just the nose, eyes & mouth. - Have frequent showers to wash any pollen off the skin
- Vaseline on nostrils
- Antihistamines tablets such as Loratadine, Cetirizine and Acravastine
- Eye Drops such as Sodium Cromoglycate.
- Nasal Sprays such as Beclometasone & Fluticasone.
Prescription Medications:
There are effective prescription only medications such as
- Prednisolone oral tablets
- Antihistamine nasal sprays (Rhinolast) or combination antihistamine with steroids (Dymista)
- Fexofenadine antihistamine tablets
- Montelukast tablets
What is KENALOG?
Each Kenalog injection contains Triamcinolone acetonide 40mg/1ml as the active ingredient which
belongs to a group of medicines called corticosteroids (steroids).
The principal effect of corticosteroids is to reduce the body’s inflammatory & allergic response and
they are used very commonly for many serious medical conditions.
There are many people who have used this treatment to good effect and while we do not directly
disagree with the assessment of the NHS, we do believe in patient choice and are happy to make this
treatment available to people who have thoroughly considered the risks.
Kenalog is still officially licensed for the treatment of severe hay fever in the UK and continues to be
routinely administered to patients in most other countries around the world.
A Kenalog injection does not cure hay fever. It just temporarily suppresses the immune system
enough to take away the symptoms in most people who need it.
The potential problems from Kenalog last for about 3 weeks after the injection but many people find
the relief from symptoms commonly lasts the entire season.
Why have a Kenalog injection
KENALOG Injection is licenced for the treatment of severe hay-fever, that is resistant to alternative
treatments.
How is it given?
Kenalog is an injection that is injected into the buttock. This is known as an Intra-Muscular (IM)
injection.
It takes a few seconds and is not a very painful injection as the substance itself is not irritating to the
tissue.
Benefits
A Kenalog injection helps many people with their symptoms of severe hay-fever. For many people it
completely relieves the symptoms for the entire season and for others it reduces the severity of the
symptoms to a point where adding other treatments can allow life as normal.
Possible Side-effects:
Steroids are powerful medications designed to reduce the body’s inflammatory and allergic
responses. An injection of Kenalog 40mg is approximately equivalent to the affects you would get
from taking a 5mg tablet of Prednisolone every day for about 3 weeks.
Kenalog injections, like all steroids can cause unwanted side-effects, although these are rare at the
dose levels that you get from a Kenalog injection. The unique issue with a Kenalog injection that
differentiates it from oral steroids is that once the injection is administered the effects last for at
least 3 weeks. With tablets the effects are gone within about 24 hours or less. This is the main
reason NHS guidelines have identified this method of administering steroids as a problem. There are
occasions when the body needs its immune system at top strength and there are theoretical
concerns that having it partially suppressed like this for up to 3 weeks could cause significant
problems.
Serious possible adverse effects:
Anaphylactic allergic reactions have been very rarely reported.
You must contact a doctor IMMEDIATELY (by going to an Accident & Emergency department) if you
notice any of the following symptoms of an anaphylactic reaction:
- Swelling of the face, lips or throat
- Breathing difficulties
- Skin itching, redness or a rash
- Sticky black stools
- Severe abdominal pain
- Vomiting blood
Possible psychological effects
All steroids, including Kenalog, can occasionally cause mental health problems although this is
usually associated with much higher doses of steroid than what is given in a Kenalog injection.
If you experience any of the symptoms listed below, please contact your doctor straight away.
- Feeling depressed, including thinking about suicide
- Feeling high (mania), or moods that go up and down
- Feeling anxious, or having problems sleeping, difficulty in thinking or being confused and
- losing your memory
- Feeling, seeing, or hearing things which do not exist.
Other possible side effects specific to Kenalog injection:
- Increased risk of infections.
- It is theoretically possible that if you were to get an infection such as measles or chicken pox
- within 3 weeks of having a kenalog injection it would be a worse episode than would
- otherwise be the case.
- Pain and skin colour changes at site of injection
- Sterile abscess at site of injection. This can cause an unsightly dimple and scar on the skin
- of your buttock.
- Dimpling of skin caused by loss of fat under the skin at injection site
Other possible side effects
- Mood changes
- Indigestion, stomach pain, stomach ulcers, bloating, weight gain, pancreatitis.
- Eye problems including glaucoma and cataracts
- Fungal infections e.g thrush
- Osteoporosis (thinner bones).
- Reduction in the body’s overall ability to respond to major stress resulting from serious
- injuries.
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