Author(s): Abdullah Alangari, Mohammad Abutaleb, Ahmad Albarraq, Abdullatif Al-Dhowailie
Intravenous immunoglobulin is the IgG plasma fraction prepared from thousands of do-nors. It is used in the treatment of many clinical conditions. Most adverse reactions that re-sult from its infusion are considered to be mild and self limited. We aimed to examine our local experience of immediate adverse reactions to Intravenous immunoglobulin. The charts of patients who received Intravenous immunoglobulin at King Khalid University Hospital from January 2003 to Dec 2005 were reviewed looking for new symptoms or signs that they developed during infusion or shortly afterwards. Twenty five patients, out of 284, developed immediate adverse reactions to Intravenous im-munoglobulin infusions. All of these reactions were mild to moderate and responded to symptomatic therapy. Fever was the most common reaction. Patients with primary immu-nodeficiency had relatively less adverse reactions as compared to those with autoimmune conditions. Intravenous immunoglobulin may be considered a relatively safe drug. However, patients should be monitored for the development of adverse reactions, most of which are easy to control.