[Intravenous immunoglobulin therapy]

Intravenous immunoglobulins (IVIg) are therapeutic preparations of normal human IgG that are obtained from pools of healthy blood donors. They can be used at low dose in the substitutive therapy of patients with primary or secondary immune deficiencies, or at high dose as an immunomodulatory agent in a large number of autoimmune and/or systemic inflammatory diseases, particularly in hematologic or neurologic diseases. Tolerance to IVIg is excellent in most of the cases and the risk of transmission of an infectious agent is only theoretical. Mechanisms of action of IVIg are multiple and complicated. The development of new therapeutic trials in association with analyses of mechanisms of action should help to define new indication of IVIg therapy.