A comparison between IVIG and plasma exchange as preparations before thymectomy in myasthenia gravis patients

Myasthenia gravis (MG) is one of the curable neurologic disorders. Various pharmacological therapies are administered for these patients and a thymectomy plays an important role in the therapy of myasthenia gravis, which develops a permanent or relative remission. We investigated the efficacy of intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) and plasma exchange (PLEX) as a preparation before thymectomy in patients with MG. This randomized clinical trial was conducted on 24 patients with MG referred for thymectomy, which were randomized to two groups of IVIG and PLEX. The IVIG group received IVIG 1 g/kg/day for two consecutive days and the PLEX group underwent 1-L plasma exchange five times with 5 % albumin replacement fluid, every other day, 10–30 days before the procedure. The duration of hospitalization (day), length of intensive care unit (ICU) stay after surgery (day), length of intubation period (h), duration of surgery (h) and dose of steroid administered were compared between the two groups. Analysis was performed via SPSS version 20. In the PLEX group, post-operative outcomes (duration of hospitalization, ICU length of stay after surgery, intubation period and duration of surgery) were longer than those in the IVIG group. There was significant difference in intubation period (p value = 0.01) and duration of surgery (p value = 0.05) between the PLEX and IVIG groups. The administration of IVIG in comparison to PLEX can be more effective in the preparation before thymectomy in myasthenia gravis patients.