Autoimmune conditions
Chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy
Also called: CIDP · chronic immune demyelinating neuropathy · immune-mediated polyradiculoneuropathy · Chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy · Chronic relapsing inflammatory polyneuropathy
What a donor has to do with this
A transplant is not a standard part of treating this condition. It is used rarely, in particular situations, and most people diagnosed with it will not have one.
This is our reading of published transplant guidelines for this condition, not a measurement of how many people need a donor. Where a source actually counted donors, the figure and the people it counted are shown further down. Where none did, we say so rather than estimate.
This page is not written out in full yet
We have not written this condition out in full yet. What is on this page — how a donor fits in, who it affects, and the sources behind that — is researched and linked, but the plain-English explanation of the condition itself is still to come.
What the evidence says
- Who it affects
- In the Dutch population-based cohort published in 2022, chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy had a median diagnosis age of 58, 66% of patients were male, and incidence was 17-fold higher at age 50 or older than below 50.
- Treatments other than a transplant
- IVIg or corticosteroids are strongly recommended first-line; plasma exchange is recommended when they fail, and SCIg is used for maintenance.; Efgartigimod alfa/hyaluronidase/Vyvgart Hytrulo became a US-approved adult CIDP option in 2024.; Immunosuppressive or biologic rescue is individualized when guideline therapies fail.
- If a transplant is used, the cells come from
- autologous mobilized peripheral-blood stem cells (dominant contemporary source); bone marrow: not reported in the opened disease-specific sources; cord blood: not reported in the opened disease-specific sources
- How often the donor was unrelated
- Not reported. No source we could read states this for this condition, so we do not give a number. An estimate here would be a guess dressed as evidence.
Where this gets complicated
Uncontrolled series report improvement, but there is no definitive randomized comparison with modern maintenance IVIg/SCIg, FcRn blockade, or other rescue therapy.; CIDP misdiagnosis is common in treatment-refractory referrals; transplant candidacy requires rigorous electrodiagnostic and clinical confirmation.; EBMT says clinical option, not standard of care; long-term relapse, neuropathy reversibility, infertility, infection, and secondary-autoimmunity risks remain relevant.
“Currently hematopoietic stem cell transplantation is used for refractory CIDP patients.”
It describes what teams consider in general. It cannot say what applies to any one person. Read the source.
Registries need people
An unrelated donor is not a usual part of treating this condition. Registering still matters, for the many conditions where it is.
Joining a registry is a cheek swab and a short health form. You are not matched to a condition — you are matched to a person, and it could be someone with any of the conditions in this library. You are contacted only if you turn out to be a possible match for someone, and you can ask questions and decline before anything else happens.
Related conditions
Others in autoimmune conditions. They are genuinely different diseases with different treatments — the group name is not a diagnosis.
Where this came from
- Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation for autoimmune diseases in the time of COVID-19: EBMT guidelines and recommendations — Bone Marrow Transplantation / EBMT, 2021
- Indications for haematopoietic cell transplantation and CAR-T for haematological diseases, solid tumours and immune disorders: 2025 EBMT practice recommendations — Bone Marrow Transplantation / EBMT, 2025-09-09
- European Academy of Neurology/Peripheral Nerve Society guideline on diagnosis and treatment of chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy: second revision — Journal of the Peripheral Nervous System / EAN-PNS, 2021
- Progress in Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation for CIDP — Frontiers in Neurology, 2020
- Epidemiology of chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy in The Netherlands — Journal of the Peripheral Nervous System, 2022