Infusion Therapy

Infusion therapy, or intravenous therapy, is one way to treat or manage neurological conditions or disorders of the nervous system. Infusion therapy involves administering medication directly into the bloodstream to change or alter the immune system.

An early form of infusion therapy that people are familiar with is chemotherapy, which kills cancer cells and weakens bone marrow but boosts your immune system activity. Over the years, infusion therapy has become more sophisticated to target a very specific part of the immune system.

Infusion therapy can be an effective treatment for a neurological disease because it can be simpler than taking a daily pill or shot and can result in fewer side effects and greater longer-term relief. The general consensus is that infusion treatments have less negative impact on your quality of life and are more effective than the older therapies.

If you can benefit from infusion therapy, you'll receive it monthly or a few times a year at an infusion center. A nurse places an IV and monitors you throughout the treatment, ranging from two to six hours.

While a small number of patients may experience a day or two of mild to moderate side effects like fatigue, headache or fever after the treatment, the goal is to get you to a point where you can receive treatments without the side effects.

Comprehensive Neurology Center uses infusion therapy to treat patients with chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy, dermatomyositis, Guillain-Barre syndrome, migraines and/or chronic headaches, multiple sclerosis, myasthenia gravis, neuropathy and polymyositis.

Results of infusion therapy vary, depending on the disease, but we see dramatic improvements in some patients.