Therapeutic plasma exchange for neurologic disorders: Single center experiences [Nörolojik hastalıklarda terapötik plazma değişimi deneyimlerimiz]

Introduction: therapeutic plasma exchange (tpe),is a procedure that involves separating the blood,exchanging the plasma and returning the other components,primarily red blood cells,to the patient. tpe is an effective treatment in neurologic diseases with immune pathogenesis. we report our single center experience about tpe in patients with different kind of neurologic diseases. material- method: we reviewed the medical records of 37 patients who had been consecutively treated by tpe between 2010 and 2014 at neurologic intensive care unit and the apheresis center. results: neurologic indications included neuromyelitis optica (nmo) (17 patients),guillainbarre syndrome (gbs) (4 patients),myastenia gravis (mg) (3 patients),multiple sclerosis (ms) (2 patients),paraneoplastic encephalopathy (5 patients),acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (adem) 1 patient,acute hemorrhagic leucoencephalopathy 1 patient,transverse myelitis (2 patients),chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (cidp) (1) and multifocal acquired demyelinating sensory and motor neuropathy (madsam) 1 patient. the median tpe session number was 6 (range 1-25). total number of tpe procedures in all cases was 236. discussion: in neurological diseases with immune pathogenesis tpe must always be kept in mind as a treatment option. tpe is widely accepted as a first line treatment for gbs and mg. according to our experience nmo is the third disease in which tpe must be admitted as the first therapeutic option. © 2016,ege university press. all rights reserved.