Therapeutic plasma exchange (TPE) is an extracorporeal blood purification technique to remove large molecular weight substances. Since the late seventies TPE was used in a variety of diseases in which humoral factors may play a part in the pathogenesis. Today, accepted indications only exist for a few entities in defined situations: Anti-glomerular basement membrane antibody mediated disease, TTP/HUS, Guillain-Barré-syndrome, hyperviscosity syndrome, chronic polyneuropathy associated with IgG and IgA gammopathy, chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy and myasthenia gravis.

Myocardial ischemia is a major complication in the perioperative period, mostly in patients with high cardiac risks. After non-cardiac surgery myocardial infarction was observed in 5.6% of patients with coronary heart disease, the rate in patients with no cardiac diseases was 0.1-0.7%. We present the case of a 21-year-old ASA I male patient who underwent surgery to reconstruct the cruciate ligament of the knee. General anaesthesia was performed in combination with a femoral nerve block. After surgery the patient suffered from myocardial infarctions on the day of surgery and the 6th day after surgery. After resuscitation, thrombolysis and percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA), an intraaortic balloon pump had to be temporarily implanted due to persistent cardiogenic shock.

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