A female in her 70s experienced weakness in her legs, trouble swallowing, and several falls. When she fell and couldnt get up, she called an ambulance and was transported to a local hospital.

Physicians at the hospital consulted Duke Healths neurology experts, who suggested a diagnosis of Guillain-Barre syndrome. The local hospital initiated a standard treatment for Guillain Barreintravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG)but the patient did not respond after two treatments. Because of a rapid deterioration of muscular function, she was transferred to Duke Hospital overnight. The deterioration ascended from her feet and began to compromise her pharyngeal and respiratory muscles.

When I arrived at the hospital, she was decompensating quickly. She was taken to the neurological ICU where she was intubated and placed on a ventilator, says Jordan L. Mayberry, MD, a neuromuscular specialist on duty that day. Mayberry was concerned by her lack of response to IVIG. To head off any further deterioration, he made the fast decision to change to a treatment the local hospital did not offer.

What therapy offered at Duke but few other North Carolina hospitals did Mayberry institute for a better chance at speeding the patients recovery?

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Innovative therapy reverses neuropathology in elderly woman | Duke Department of Neurology - Duke Department of Neurology