A plasma exchange saves the life of a patient suffering from severe liver failure.

After no donors were located in his family, plasma treatment at a top Delhi hospital saved the life of a 52-year-old man suffering from severe liver failure.
New Delhi, India,After no donors were located in his family, plasma treatment at a prominent Delhi hospital saved the life of a 52-year-old man who was experiencing severe liver failure, doctors said.
The man was admitted to the Sir Ganga Ram hospital with symptoms of jaundice, followed by altered consciousness, ascites (abdominal fluid accumulation), and decreased urine output (acute kidney injury), and subsequent testing revealed that he was hepatitis B virus positive, with a diagnosis of acute on chronic liver failure (ACLF).
At this point, dialysis was explored, and the patient was offered the possibility of a liver transplant by the physicians, since his parameters showed a one-month survival chance of roughly 50%.
“Due to the lack of a family donor, we offered the unusual alternative of plasma exchange (PLEX). He received a total of five PLEX treatments from us. After the second therapy, his jaundice, consciousness, and renal function all started to get better. He continued to get extra medical care, the most important of which was antiviral medicine “Gastroenterology Senior Consultant Dr. Piyush Ranjan stated.
The patient spent 20 days in the hospital before being discharged in a stable condition. One month later, on the follow-up visit, his ascites (stomach water) had completely disappeared, and his jaundice had returned to normal.
“Plasmapheresis is increasingly used as a stopgap measure before liver transplantation, and in many cases, the vast majority of these patients will recover if other factors are kept under control. In our patient, the Hepatitis B virus treatment was still ongoing. In this situation, PLEX helped the failing liver.
“In PLEX, the patient’s blood is collected, and a machine uses centrifugation to separate the plasma from the cellular components (RBC, WBC, and platelets). Added the doctor, “Fresh plasma (FFP) and albumin are combined with the cellular components before the plasma is removed and the patient is given the final product.
According to him, the plasma includes a lot of harmful chemicals that are created once the liver is injured. Because PLEX removes the entire plasma, all hazardous compounds are eliminated, as opposed to dialysis and MARS, where removal is restricted by pore size.