How common is angio-oedema and what are the symptoms?
How common is angio-oedema?
The number of people affected by angio-oedema is not known, but it is uncommon. Women are affected more often than men. It can occur at any age. However, it most commonly affects people aged 40-60 (apart from hereditary angio-oedema which often develops in children). Hereditary angio-oedema is rare and accounts for about 1 in 200 cases of angio-oedema.
What are the symptoms of angio-oedema?
Symptoms of each episode develop quickly, over minutes or hours.
- A 'typical' episode is as follows:
*Areas of the skin become more and more swollen. Most commonly this affects the eyelids, lips, genitalia, hands and feet.
*The surface of the skin may appear normal - it is the tissues just beneath the skin that swell.
*The swellings are often more painful than itchy.
*An itchy urticarial rash often develops at the same time on various parts of the body.
*The swelling takes up to 72 hours to ease and go.
- In some cases, in addition to the above:
*You may become short of breath, become wheezy, and have difficulty breathing due to swelling of the lining of throat, main airway, tongue and and mouth.
*You may develop abdominal pain with vomiting or diarrhoea.
*Occasionally, angio-oedema is part of a more severe anaphylaxis episode (described above).
- Hereditary angio-oedema:
*Typically causes recurring episodes. In most cases there are one or more episodes per month. These can occur 'out of the blue' for no apparent reason, but episodes may be triggered by stress, trauma, minor operations and dental surgery.
*Swellings commonly affect the hands or feet and are painless.
*Up to 1 in 4 cases have involvement of the throat, tongue or airway with some degree of wheezing or breathing difficulty.
*Abdominal pain is common.
*Episodes last 1-4 days.
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