Intravenous immunoglobulin treatment: Where do dermatologists stand?

Intravenous immunoglobulins (IVIG) are therapeutic products, comprising polyclonal IgGs, which are obtained from human plasma pool of healthy blood donors. Despite the lack of Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval, the experience of using IVIG in various dermatological diseases increases day by day and exciting results are reported. However, experience with the use of IVIG in dermatological indications are mostly case reports whereas randomized, controlled, double-blind, multicentric studies have not been performed. Dermatological diseases treated with IVIG are autoimmune bullous skin diseases, Stevens-Johnson syndrome and toxic epidermal necrolysis, connective tissue diseases, pyoderma gangrenosum, severe atopic dermatitis, chronic urticaria, Kawasaki disease, pretibial myxoedema, scleredema, and graft-versus-host disease.