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Extracorporeal blood purification
From a global perspective indications for apheresis may vary and more than 45 different diagnoses have been reported from various countries.[1] In this context lipid apheresis with the B. Braun H.E.L.P. system is a well established therapy with decades of experience.
Apheresis essentially means a separation of plasma from the rest of the blood. Therapeutic apheresis is an extracorporeal treatment capable of removing pathogenic blood components from patients that cause morbidity.
The H.E.L.P procedure (heparin-induced extracorporeal LDL precipitation) was developed as a lipoprotein apheresis procedure capable to reduce lipoproteins, fibrinogen, adhesion molecules and others and thereby improve endothelial function, rheology and other pathophysiologic processes involved in progression of atherosclerosis. The abbreviation H.E.L.P. stands for
Heparin-induced
Extracorporal
LDL
Precipitation
In the H.E.L.P. procedure the plasma is separated from the blood cells and then sophistically processed by using heparin as additive. The selectively treated, purified plasma is then remixed with the remaining blood constituents and supplied back to the patient. During H.E.L.P. apheresis, these four steps (blood feeding, plasma separation, plasma processing and restoration of the purified blood) are performed by a single device, the Plasmat® Futura.
Apheresis
[1] Stegmayr B, Korach JM, Norda R, Rock G, Fadel F. Is there a need for a national or a global apheresis registry? Transfus Apher Sci. 2003 Oct;29(2):179-85. doi: 10.1016/S1473-0502(03)00145-9. PMID: 12941358.
