latex allergy can happen with foley catheter

This patient has developed an allergic reaction and anaphylactic shock during an operation. Anaphylaxis is defined by any one of respiratory difficulty or wheezing, cardiovascular instability, or diarrhea, and epinephrine should be the mainstay of treatment. Allergists call anaphylaxis occurring in the operating room perioperative anaphylaxis. The differential diagnosis for the causative agent of perioperative anaphylaxis includes antibiotics, medical dyes, latex, neuromuscular blocking agents, and disinfectants. This patient has a known allergy to latex, which is relatively common in patients with spina bifida. In the operating room, she was likely exposed to something that contained latex. Although some gloves are made from latex, many hospitals have moved away from latex-containing products, including using latex-free gloves. Some BP cuffs contain latex. Another medical device that might contain latex is a Foley catheter. Latex-free Foley catheters are available, but they are expensive, and some hospitals save them for patients with known latex allergies. Although you may not be able to be entirely sure that the Foley catheter is the offender in this case, you should remove it to remove any possible ongoing latex exposure (choice A is correct). This patient improved quickly on administration of epinephrine and removing the Foley catheter (which was found to contain latex on postevent analysis of the case).123456

Footnotes

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