Treatment of myasthenia gravis: current practice and future directions

Abstract

Myasthenia gravis is the best understood of the autoimmune diseases and a number of treatments are currently used to produce clinical improvement. However, due to the scarcity of evidence-based and comparative data, there is still no consensus on many therapeutic issues. Even a widely accepted treatment like thymectomy has never been proven effective by a well-designed trial. These are just some of the unanswered questions: What is the best treatment algorithm and safest long-term management of myasthenia gravis? What patients are likely to benefit from thymectomy? How long should myasthenia gravis patients be treated? Is it possible to discontinue immunotherapy once remission has been achieved? What are the risks associated with long-term immunosuppression? In this article, we review current therapeutic strategies and these unresolved questions about myasthenia gravis treatment.

• azathioprine
• cyclosporin
• immunosuppression
• iv. immunoglobulin
• myasthenia gravis
• mycophenolate mofetil
• plasmapheresis
• prednisone
• pyridostigmine
• thymectomy