Russian Pioneers of Therapeutic Hemapheresis and Extracorporeal Hemocorrection: 100‐Year Anniversary of the World's First Successful Plasmapheresis

Abstract

On 15 February 2013 (2 February on the Julian Calendar) we celebrated the 100‐year anniversary of the world's first successful experimental plasmapheresis. Scientific research projects in this field were carried out by the Department of Infectious Disease, Russian Imperial Medical Surgical Academy located in Saint‐Petersburg. Doctor of Medical Sciences and Professor Vadim A. Yurevich was a Principal Investigator for this research, which in 1913 resulted in the discovery of a new way of treatment. The results were published in Russki Vratch (Russian Physician) Journal no. 18 (1914) – V.A. Yurevich and N.K. Rosenberg “For the Question Regarding Washing of Blood Outside of the Body and the Vitality of Red Blood Cells”. There was no terminology offered for this medical innovation at that time. Plasma removal was performed not solely, but in combination with washing of blood cells returned to the patient. Nowadays this combination is still considered to be more effective than separate plasmapheresis. According to the published experimental protocols this new treatment was done on 15 February (2 February on the Julian Calendar or “old style”). One year later in 1914 a famous researcher, John Abel and coauthors, repeated a separate plasma removal treatment with retransfusion of the blood cells and suggested the term “plasmapheresis”, which is now official. The article entitled “Plasma Removal With Return of Corpuscles (Plasmapheresis)”, written by Abel was published 3 months later than the article by Professor Yurevich. In 1924, Dr Ivan P. Mikhailovskiy repeated experiments by Yurevich and Rosenberg in vivo on a dog model, confirmed the clinical efficiency and developed the methodology in his article “Washing of Blood In Vivo, the Methodology, Problems, and Importance for the Treatment of Toxic Conditions.”

Apheresis Efficacy and Tolerance in the Setting of HLA-Incompatible Kidney Transplantation

“…The very first plasmapheresis technique was performed on dogs in 1914 [10]. In CKD and KT, the main pathologies associated with plasmapheresis are antibody-mediated rejection, focal segmental glomerulosclerosis, and desensitization [11].…”

“…The characteristics of all apheresis sessions are summarized in Table 2. The number of sessions per patient was 15 [10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24]. IA was the most performed technique with 720 (81.7%) sessions.…”

Therapeutic Plasma Exchange (TPE) as an effective supportive therapy for COVID-19 case with Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) and thrombophilia: A case report

“…The therapy, also known as plasmapheresis, has been implemented for more than one century. 11 In the guideline issued by the American Society of Apheresis for ARDS case, the administration of TPE is included in category III, or the optimum role of apheresis therapy is not established. Decision-making should be individualized.…”

Developments in extracorporeal therapy for the poisoned patient

“…Yurevich and Rosenberg working in St. Petersburg, Russia, had already published their experiments on extracorporeal washing of blood to remove poison. Indeed, Abel referred to their work in his paper [50]. Kuzmin and Vedenskii later reported its use in atropine overdose [51].…”