[Hereditary angioneurotic edema. Treatment of a pseudosurgical digestive attack with C1 inhibitor concentrate].

Although anabolic androgens can be used to prevent acute attacks of hereditary angioneurotic oedema, these are still observed. When they are severe, and even more so when they involve the larynx or the abdominal viscera, an emergency treatment is necessary, ideally with the purified C1-inhibitor (C1-INH) administered by intravenous infusion. In a case with pseudo-surgical abdominal symptoms, this treatment was followed by an unusually dramatic regression of all symptoms. Serial laboratory examinations showed an increase in C1-INH and C2 plasma levels and in the number of basophils within less than 30 minutes; the increase in C4 levels occurred later. Thus, C1-INH is very effective in the treatment of acute hereditary angioneurotic oedema, but the product is not widely available; it should be reserved to severe forms affecting the larynx and the viscera.