ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses how to identify those individuals most likely to respond to treatment with intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIg), describe published success rates of IVIg therapy, and presents alternative treatments to IVIg. Of all of the causes of recurrent pregnancy loss, the ones that would be expected to respond to IVIg treatment would be the etiologies that involve a mechanism that can be modulated by IVIg. Originally, IVIg therapy was used to treat women with post-implantation pregnancy losses who had not been successful in pregnancies previously treated with aspirin and prednisone or heparin. IVIg has also been used to treat women with unexplained recurrent pregnancy loss. IVIg was shown to increase the success rate in patients undergoing in vitro fertilization for treatment of unexplained infertility based on meta-analysis with a sample size of over 8000 patients. Since IVIg has been associated with significant cost and potential side effects, an alternative treatment has been sought.
