Three years with a national apheresis registry.

The large number of unsolved problems in plasma exchange therapy makes an apheresis registry appear useful. The results of such an open prospective observational study from 1987 to 1989 in East Germany are presented in this paper. With 1,945 procedures in a total of 419 patients (on average 4.1 treatments per patient) about 80% of all treatments in the country were registered. Exchange volume averaged 2.7 (+/- 0.78) l or 43 (+/- 13.9) ml/kg body weight. Substitutes were albumin (51% of the cases), FFP (22%), and both (22%). Nephrological (25%) and neurological (23%) diagnoses prevailed among the treated diseases. Haematologic diseases (12%) were underrepresented and hepatic coma (20%) was overrepresented. Minor side effects occurred in 22% of all treatments and severe complications in 38 treatments (2%). Four fatalities probably resulted from plasmapheresis therapy. The registry permits an assessment of the treatment results and of several trends during the period of observation.