Intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) is not a drug but rather a protein that is found in relatively small amounts in the blood. The immunoglobulins are extracted from blood donors (usually one infusion of IVIG requires thousands of donors to make enough product to treat one patient).

Immunoglobulins are one of the body’s most important ways to protect us from infections. Some patients lack immunoglobulin due to their medical conditions and IVIG infusions thereby serve as a replacement. IVIG therapy is also beneficial to patients who make antibodies against their own body tissues.

Most of our patients who receive IVIG have antibodies against parts of their nerves, muscles or connections (neuromuscular junction). How IVIG works in these circumstances is not precisely known. However, one possibility is that it interferes with the autoantibody activity by directly binding to the abnormal antibody or by modifying the body’s need to produce the antibody.

IVIG has been shown to be an extremely safe therapy with very few side effects. It is often used in place of administering steroids to avoid steroid side effects (steroid-sparing). To ensure the safety of our patients and to minimize any allergic reaction, we administer IVIG over an extended time period of 4-8 hours.