Birth of the concept and the development of extracorporeal immunomodulation.

Extracorporeal immunomodulation is a term that presents the concept and techniques of a group of therapeutic procedures by which immunological circumstances in a patient's body, suppression or activation, drastically are altered by applying extracorporeal circulation. This had been achieved only by administration of the pharmacological agents, such as immunosuppressive agents before the introduction of extracorporeal immunomodulation. From the view of removal of the pathogenic substances in the circulating blood, it is regarded as belonging to the blood purification procedures. In respect to the technology, plasmapheresis is an important and a key procedure in most of the cases. The concept and current clinical practices are described in the text.