Immunoadsorption

Established extracorporeal therapy method, which is carried out with the aid of various adsorbers. For this purpose, the patient's blood is taken into an external blood circuit and separated into blood cells and blood plasma. The blood plasma flows over an adsorber which binds antibodies and immune complexes from the blood plasma. The purified plasma and blood cells are then brought together again and returned to the patient. Each treatment takes several hours. Often it is necessary to replace the absorbed "pathological" immunoglobulins afterwards by intravenous administration of immunoglobulins (IVIG). Immunoadsorption is a treatment alternative and supplement to conventional therapies of various autoimmune diseases. The treatment usually takes 2-3 hours. The frequency of treatment depends on the respective disease and its severity.

For patients suffering from severe forms of autoimmune diseases involving antibodies and for whom conventional therapies are not sufficiently effective, immunoadsorption (possibly in combination with IVIG) has proven to be an effective therapeutic method. This includes the following clinical pictures:

• Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE)
• pemphigus vulgaris
• Therapy resistant bullous pemphigoid
• Severe dermatomyositis
• Livedovasculopathy.