Background: Intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) is frequently given in autoimmune disorders. Side effects are usually mild but severe complications such as thrombosis may occur. After one patient with IVIG-associated thrombotic complication at Sainte-Justine Hospital, the incidence of serious adverse events (SAEs) reported to the Quebec Hemovigilance System (QHS) was reviewed.
Study design and methods: This study was a retrospective review of QHS database of IVIG-related thrombotic complications since 2003, including a case report of a pediatric patient.
Results: QHS is one of the rare national hemovigilance systems that have included IVIG reports for almost a decade. Over an extended period of 11 years (2003-2013), there have been eight cases of IVIG-related thrombosis, seven in adults and one in the pediatric population (respective rate of 0.06 case and 0.17 case per 100,000 g of IVIG given). The single pediatric case occurred in a 16-year-old female receiving IVIG for severe immune thrombocytopenia.
Conclusion: Thrombosis after IVIG is a rare though SAE occurring mostly in adults. This underlines the importance of properly reporting IVIG SAEs to improve hemovigilance data and study such rare events.
© 2014 AABB.