Plasmapheresis - patient feedback and expert opinion

The achievements of modern medicine and the creation of new models of technology made it possible to appear in such a new direction as blood surgery. It includes ultrafiltration, hemosorption, plasmapheresis, reviews of which allow us to say that such methods of treatment are the future. Use of these treatment programs can reduce the drug load on the patient's body and, accordingly, optimize the therapy program for diseases of the musculoskeletal system, kidneys, liver, digestive tract, heart and blood vessels, respiratory system.

What is the procedure?

Every person who has had to carry plasmapheresis, reviews leaves a wide variety - from the rapture of the effect of the treatment to the deep rejection of the procedure as such. The very principle of the therapy is that a certain amount of blood is removed from the circulatory system of the patient (venous bed), which is then placed in a special apparatus. It carries out the fractionation of blood to the liquid part - plasma, which can be used to produce certain blood products, and the shaped elements returned to the systemic bloodstream after centrifugation.

The missing volume of liquid is compensated by means of crystalline (physiological sodium chloride solution, "Desol", "Trisol" solution ) or colloidal solutions, which are selected by the transfusiologist individually for each patient. That is why when answering the question - what is plasmapheresis specialists say that this is a new method of gravitational blood surgery, the use of which allows to mechanically remove from the patient's body toxic elements and some metabolic products.

When is the procedure really needed?

Carrying out plasmapheresis, reviews about which differ even in different patients with similar diagnoses, doctors hope to clear the blood of pathological impurities or excessive concentrations of body products. When deciding whether or not such a technique of gravitational blood surgery is shown in each specific case, the specialist of the blood transfusion unit for each patient determines the necessary number of procedures, the frequency of their recurrence and the volume of venous blood that can be removed from the patient's bloodstream without the development of severe consequences.

Naturally, plasmapheresis, the indication for which may occur in the practice of a physician-therapist, a surgeon, a dermatologist, and even an obstetrician-gynecologist, is always performed in a hospital. In some cases, the patient must be hospitalized for treatment (with problems with blood coagulability, general severe condition, with problems with venous access) or undergo outpatient procedures, staying in the clinic only during the process of plasmapheresis and several hours after the completion of the next session.

Very rarely, when performing a patient with plasmapheresis, reviews about which patients are most often received in modern conditions from advertising on various Internet sites or recommendations of acquaintances, the doctor is faced with the question - what course duration is optimal. A single-valued answer is not and can not be: in some cases, the procedure of plasmapheresis should be performed every 3-4 days, but a very short course of 3-4 sessions, for example, with severe acute allergic reactions. Sometimes the doctor recommends one-time procedures with a frequency of once every 15-20 days - this is how the treatment of the antiphospholipid syndrome and the habitual miscarriage of pregnancy, but the sessions continue all the time the child's expectations are under the control of laboratory indicators and supervision by specialists.