1981 Volume 10 Issue 2 Pages 559-562
Plasma exchange using cellulose acetate hollow fiber (CAHF) filter has been developed and applied to patients with acute hepatic failure.
A prototype module of plasma separator, which is an improved cellulose acetate hollow fiber (Plasmaflo, PF-O2), was utillized for plasma exchange.
5L of plasma exchange was performed within 3 hrs. The concentration of various plasma proteins including HBs-Ag, HBc-Ab and immune complex in filtrated plasma was almost same as those in plasma obtained by centrifugal method.
4 out of 8 patients with fulminant hepatic failure were survived. Even in fatal cases, the prolongation of survival time was shown to be possible by daily repeated plasma exchange. The supplementation of hepatic synthetic detects appeares to be possible by intensive plasma exchanged.
However, detoxification of toxic substances with large pool size appears to be insufficient by 5L of daily plasma exchange in fatal cases.
These chinical results indicated that the daily repeated plasma exchange with hollow fiber filter is effective in treatment of acute hepatic failure.
