Application of a blood cell separator connected with the hemodialysis circuit in renal transplantation

lymphaperesis

Abstract

As a new immunosuppressive method in renal transplantation, we connected a blood cell separator (IBM 2997) with the hemodialysis circuit and carried out removal of lymphocytes: that is, lymphaperesis.
This procedure as an immunosuppressive pretreatment in living related kidney grafting can be performed safely without complications during preoperative hemodialysis. Apart from pretreatment lymphapheresis, this technique also enables us to perform lymphapheresis safely during hemodialysis whenever hemodialysis is needed after transplantation. On average, 3×10⁹ lymphocytes were removed at the time of each lymphapheresis.
In this paper, we examine the technical problems of lymphapheresis using the blood cell separator connected with the hemodialysis circuit and present excellent clinical results for living related kidney transplantation cases where lymphapheresis was performed as an immunosuppressive pretreatment.