Doctors at a city hospital have found a new method more useful to treat the patients suffering from Guillain-Barre Syndrome (GBS), a rare disorder where antibodies in the body fail to distinguish between the own and foreign cells.
Left untreated, this could lead to medical emergency in a span of a few weeks. This, however, is referred to a syndrome or disorder and not a disease because it is not clear that a specific disease-causing agent is involved to trigger it.
The disorder, which impacts only one in a population of one lakh, is caused when the body’s immune system attacks part of the peripheral nervous system. “The first symptoms include varying degrees of weakness or tingling sensations in the legs,” Dr Naveen Kumar, a neurologist with Global Hospitals, said.
Addressing a press conference here on Wednesday, he said the present treatment regimen included prescribing a course of injections that could cost the patients Rs 4.5 lakh.
He said his team had started using a method that is used widely in the West that brings down the cost of treatment to under Rs 1 lakh.
“After doing necessary tests, we will replace the plasma containing antibodies from the patients with that of cleaner plasma, completely removing the faulty antibodies. This we will do it over a period of five-seven days,” he said.
Comparatively, this procedure could consume more time.
The hospital had performed 35 procedures so far.