The Effect of Plasma Exchange on Recovery of Patients with Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Admitted to the Intensive Care Unit
Abstract
To evaluate the efficacy and safety of Plasma Exchange (PE) in Severe
Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) positive pneumonia patients.
This study was a case series conducted at a referral hospital. Twenty SARS-CoV-2-positive
patients had an oxygen saturation of 80-90%, and the respiratory rate above 30 per minute. These
symptoms started 1 week after the onset of the disease. All patients had less than 90% oxygen saturation and needed respiratory support (oxygen therapy) treated with plasma exchange on 3-5 consecutive days during hospitalization. We followed the amount of oxygen saturation, which was in the
form of increasing the patient's oxygen saturation above 90% without oxygen supply and above 92%
without oxygen, improving shortness of breath and improving patients' clinical symptoms.
Our study included a total of 20 COVID-19 patients with an overall mean age of 48.9 ± 12.1
years (range: 39–58 years); 60% (n=12) were males, 34.5% of whom benefited from TPE sessions.
On the third day after the treatment, shortness of breath improved in these patients. Oxygen saturation of any twenty patients increased before the procedure of plasma exchange. Clinical symptoms of
all patients were decreasing shortness of breath and improving patients' clinical symptoms after the
procedure.
According to our observations, plasma exchange could not show a significant therapeutic effect in COVID-19 patients with severe lung involvement.
How strong is the evidence?
Evidence Hub reads this as a case series, done in people. Its evidence level is 5 of 5 (Very low · case / narrative / animal / in vitro / in silico). Case reports, narrative reviews, and animal, cell or computer-model studies give the weakest evidence for human health. Reported size: 19 participants or records.
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