Current Status of Therapeutic Plasmapheresis and Related Techniques

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Abstract
THE PROPER role of plasmapheresis as a treatment modality is gradually becoming better defined. Controlled trials are now either completed or under way for most of the common entities for which plasmapheresis has been applied. Data from these, as well as a number of uncontrolled studies, have been evaluated to assess the likelihood that plasmapheresis will be helpful in a given clinical situation, and the conclusions are presented in this report. After Abel et al1coined the termplasmapheresisin 1914, widespread interest in this special form of blood-letting as a therapeutic modality had to await the development of practical equipment for performing safe and efficient plasma exchanges. The introduction of continuous- and intermittent-flow centrifuges in the 1960s, followed more recently by flat- and hollow-fiber filtration devices, simplified the procedure. Now plasmapheresis is a practical consideration in clinical situations in which pathogenic materials can be removed effectively from the

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