Plasmapheresis

[502Blues]

Im not very educated on the subject so Im hoping someone can help me learn about it. They are supposed to start doing plasmapheresis in my city son or have just started doing it. My transplant coordinator is supposed to inform me as soon as she learns more about it herself. Im aware that they have already been doing plasmpheresis in other states. They ae a bit slow out here. Is it true that with plasmapheresis that a donor does not even have to be the same blood type as the recipient?

[Run8]

Plasmapheresis removes the antibodies. A example would be, if you have had previous transplants or blood transfusions, or if you are a female and have had children. your body would produce antibodies so your pra would be higher. Plasmapheresis is a way to remove the antibodies to lower your pra.

[Robby712]

I am in St. Louis and they are just starting a program here as well.  If they don't I'm considering transferring to Johns Hopkins in Baltimore to have the treatments done there.

It's essentially done to lower antibodies in the blood so you are more likely to accept a transplant from a cadaver kidney, OR a Living Donor.  Depending on anti-body levels you have 4 to 6 treatments done before the transplant, with the possibility of a few post-transplant.

The treatment time varies, but from what I've read it's about 2-4 hours long.  Heres some more info on it if you are interested:

http://www.wellmark.com/e_business/provider/medical_policies/policies/Plasma_Exchange.htm

http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/transplant/Programs/InKTP/crossmatch.html

[TiffanyJean]

I don't have the link - I'm on my iPhone but - if you go to the UCSF website,that is our transplant center and they do this. We are looking into this option.

TJ

[Wenchie58]

I had 12 sessions of plasmapheresis post transplant as I immediately started to reject the new kidney.  The treatments themselves last about 2 hours and are painless...just boring.  It did the trick, it rid me of antibodies and helped my new addition to chug along for awhile.  We are having some issues now but it isn't antibodies...they are still in check after 6 months.

[TiffanyJean]

Ok finally found my way to my computer so that I could post the link to UCSF:

http://www.ucsfhealth.org/adult/special/k/113181.html

It is something that we are looking into for Richie, his mom is hopefully going to be tested for it to be done.

I would ask your transplant center/coordinator about more information about it, to see if it would really be right for.

TJ

[502Blues]

Thank you all, the links were very helpful.