National survey of hemapheresis practice in Turkey (1998)

The Turkish Apheresis Group has maintained a national registry for apheresi s activities since 1997. The hemapheresis practice of Turkey in 1998 is sum marized in brief detail in this article. A total of 30,136 apheresis proced ures were performed at 31 different apheresis centers. At 10 centers, 145 p eripheral blood stem cell (PBSC) apheresis were performed on 82 patients in allogeneic setting and at 17 centers, 981 PBSC apheresis were performed on 271 patients in autologous setting. Frequently observed adverse effects du ring PBSC apheresis were mild tremor and chills, paresthesia and nausea in 15% of the patients and donors. Vascular access complications, particularly observed in autologous setting due to central venous catheters were encoun tered in 10% of the procedures. Eight hundred and sixty-nine therapeutic pl asma exchange procedures were performed at 21 centers on 172 patients, most commonly for neurological disorders and thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpur a (TTP)/hemolyic uremic syndrome (HUS). Therapeutic cytapheresis procedures like leukapheresis, plateletapheresis and erythrocyte apheresis were perfo rmed especially for cytoreduction in myeloproliferative disorders. A total of 204 cytapheresis procedures (66% leukapheresis, 33% plateletapheresis an d 1% erythrocytapheresis) were performed on 134 patients in 15 centers. Don or plateletapheresis was the most used apheresis procedure, reaching a tota l of 28.016 in 1998. Many university hospitals and a few state hospitals ar e performing above-mentioned apheresis procedures with great success and ac ceptable side effects. According to these data we are planning prospective trials and will establish National Standards of Practice, (C) 2000 Publishe d by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.