Overview

APHERESIS What is apheresis. Certain conditions can be caused by an abnormal cell or component in the blood that may need removal. Apheresis is a “blood-washing” procedure in which your blood is passed through a device that separates it into various components, discards cells or pathologic components that are thought to be causing a disease or condition, and returns the remaining blood along with replacement fluid and normal cells.   There are two main reasons why patients may undergo apheresis. Apheresis can be done on donated blood given to a recipient or be therapeutic for patients with certain conditions that impact their blood or components within their blood.   There are two types of therapeutic apheresis methods: plasmapheresis and cytapheresis.1 Plasmapheresis separates plasma (a light yellow liquid blood component containing proteins and antibodies) from the blood.

How it works:

Selectively removes cells/substances from blood associated with or causing certain disease states

Dosage Form: Tablet N/A

Common Usage: sickle cell, leukemia, myasthenia gravis, immune thrombotic thromboycytopenic purpura, renal diseases, Guillain-Barre, MS, RA