Apheresis in thoracic organ transplantation

The beneficial addition of cyclosporine and tacrolimus to the immunosuppressive armamentarium have unfortunately only partially solved the problems of acute and chronic rejection in thoracic organ transplantation. Apheresis techniques offer creative avenues for modifications of allograft rejection. Plasmapheresis can be used for mechanical reduction of alloantibody burdens in highly sensitized patients and permit transplantation in an otherwise almost hopeless situation and can also be used on a short-term basis for the treatment of acute humoral rejection. Extracorporeal photochemotherapy holds promise as a possibly synergistic adjunct to conventional therapy and may even reduce the severity of graft vasculopathy. The increasing availability of highly specific column immunoadsorption techniques may further increase the applicability of apheresis in transplantation.