Plasma exchange, also called plasmapheresis, is sometimes used instead of IVIg. This involves being attached to a machine that removes blood from a vein and filters out the harmful antibodies that are attacking your Plasma exchange involves having the patient attached to a machine to remove some of their blood and replace with other blood product (eg human albumin), over 5 days. PE should be considered in preference to IVIg in cases of non-motor dominant CIDP.

Corticosteroids should also be considered in preference to IVIg in cases of non-motor dominant CIDP. Corticosteroids are easy to administer either as daily or alternate daily treatments, or monthly oral or intravenous regimes. In older patients, there are often competing medical conditions which mean that they need to be used with caution or avoided altogether e.g. if a patient has poorly controlled diabetes or osteoporosis, or if they have recurrent chest infections and immunosuppression might put them at risk of overwhelming infection. A younger patient may have fewer comorbidities but would also potentially be facing longer term treatment.

If a patient needs very frequent IVIg infusions then a neurologist might consider adding in a steroid or another immunosuppressant agent, and if IVIg does not offer clear benefits, then steroids are the obvious next treatment option. There is a difference in cost between the treatment options, with both IVIg and plasma exchange costing thousands of pounds per course whilst steroids are relatively cheap, but this is not a deciding factor in which treatment is provided.

It depends how you define ‘cure’, but in CIDP literature this has been defined as ‘remission of over 5 years off treatment’, which has been reported in about 25% of patients treated with steroids for less than one year. Neurologists would more usually use the term ‘remission’ in CIDP (i.e. stability without treatment). Shorter term remission is more common than ‘cure’: there is evidence from studies that up to 40% of patients with CIDP may be in remission after one year of treatment with either steroids or IVIg. It is for this reason that it is advised that the need for treatment is reviewed on an annual basis if patients are no longer showing any or little fluctuation in their clinical symptoms. Although many people remain free of symptoms following remission, there is no guarantee that there will be no further relapse in the future. 15% of patients do not respond to any of the three treatments.