La Revue du praticien
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Cirrhosis is the result of chronic inflammation and of the progressive increase of fibrosis. In France, hepatitis C infection is the second cause of cirrhosis after alcohol abuse. ⋯ The complications of cirrhosis such as ascites, oesophageal varices, bleeding, hepatic encephalopathy and hepatocellular carcinoma mainly explain the high rate of morbidity and mortality. Liver transplantation is the established therapy for decompensated liver disease of any etiology significantly changed the outcome of patients with advanced cirrhosis.
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Intravenous immunoglobulins (IVIg) are therapeutic preparations of normal human IgG that are obtained from pools of healthy blood donors. They can be used at low dose in the substitutive therapy of patients with primary or secondary immune deficiencies, or at high dose as an immunomodulatory agent in a large number of autoimmune and/or systemic inflammatory diseases, particularly in hematologic or neurologic diseases. ⋯ Mechanisms of action of IVIg are multiple and complicated. The development of new therapeutic trials in association with analyses of mechanisms of action should help to define new indication of IVIg therapy.