Ivig
 

This is going to be a long post. This is a very large subject.

IVIG stands for Intravenous Immune Globulin.
Here is a good link that explains it:

http://www.cidpusa.org/ivig.html

IVIG is discussed here on the PN forum below this subforum area, very often. I did a search today and there were 422 threads, and they will continue to grow in number.

I often call IVIG , "the big guns"... because it is very sophisticated, very expensive, and very effective for certain types of PN which are autoimmune in nature. That means antibodies in the patient attacking the patient's nervous system.

Dahlek, a member here has contributed some help in gathering the links I am going post here. And she is very experienced with IVIG and often posts here with her knowledge and links she has gathered.

Here are some links for overview:
http://www.news-medical.net/news/2006/08/03/19244.aspx
there are two pages to this link, which has alot of ads, I apologize for, but be sure to read both pages.

Criteria for patients to meet that some doctors use before deciding on IVIG:
http://journals.lww.com/neurotodayon..._Raise.11.aspx

This link is to the I.G. Living magazine which is a very good resource:
http://www.igliving.com/AboutUs.aspx

This is another link for guidelines for use:
http://www.hss.edu/conditions_14271.asp

And this PDF explains the process and what to expect:
http://www.ashp.org/s_ashp/docs/file...Admin-Utah.pdf
details about infusions, side effects, and how they may be administered.

The following two links list the manufacturers names and types of IVIG:
http://www.fffenterprises.com/Email/...VIGSupplyIndex

this link gives phone #s if you need to call one:
http://www.pptaglobal.org/patient/ivig.aspx

The following three links to our PN forum have discussions that most new patients would find useful: costs, insurance, administration of infusion details, etc:

http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/sh...highlight=IVIG

http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/sh...highlight=IVIG

http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/sh...highlight=IVIG

IVIG is being used more and more often now for many autoimmune conditions. Here is a link to a list:
http://www.cidpusa.org/disease.html

Rapidly progressing PN, and CIDP, and GBS are the 3 most often seen here. But we have posters on Multiple sclerosis forum, Myasthenia Gravis forum, and Autoimmune Forum also using IVIG. There is even a new experimental treatment for RSD now using weaker concentrations of IVIG.
http://www.healthcentral.com/chronic.../promising-rsd
http://journals.lww.com/neurotodayon...l_Pain.10.aspx

The proper diagnosis of a patient's neuropathy is important therefore when autoimmune factors are suspected. IVIG may be helpful for some patients if they qualify for this treatment.

Patients curious about how others fared on this treatment can search each of the forums I listed above and find those threads.
Over the years more and more people are using IVIG and so there are many who come here to share that experience.

newer brands of IVIG...
 

This link is to a good post that explains some of the newer
brands of IVIG and what is different about them:

http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/post1146656-2.html