Objective: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a complex autoimmune and neurodegenerative disease of the central nervous system. Since MS affects mostly fertile women, pregnancy issues often arise in daily practice. The present study assessed the use of postpartum intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) in MS.
Methods: The authors individually searched for records using PubMed, Medline, EMBASE, Cochrane, SciELO, LILACS, and Google Scholar, using the terms "multiple sclerosis" OR "MS" AND "pregnancy" OR "gestation" OR "partum" OR "post-partum" OR "puerperium" AND "immunoglobulin".
Results: The initial search returned 321 papers. There were 11 eligible articles selected for the review. In total, 380 patients had received post-natal IVIG to reduce the number of postpartum relapses. The unadjusted number needed to treat was 6.3 for the quantitative and 5.8 for the qualitative analyses.
Conclusion: The therapeutic effect of IVIG for prevention of postnatal relapses in MS could not clearly be established in this meta-analysis.