Plasma exchange for renal vasculitis and idiopathic rapidly progressive glomerulonephritis: a meta-analysis

Plasma exchange may be effective adjunctive treatment for renal vasculitis. We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials of plasma exchange for renal vasculitis.

Systematic review and meta-analysis of articles identified from electronic databases, bibliographies, and studies identified by experts. Data were abstracted in parallel by 2 reviewers.

Adults with idiopathic renal vasculitis or rapidly progressive glomerulonephritis.

Randomized controlled trials that compared standard care with standard care plus adjuvant plasma exchange in adult patients with either renal vasculitis or idiopathic rapidly progressive glomerulonephritis.

Adjuvant plasma exchange.

Composite of end-stage renal disease or death.

We identified 9 trials including 387 patients. In a fixed-effects model, the pooled RR for end-stage renal disease or death was 0.80 for patients treated with adjunctive plasma exchange compared with standard care alone (95% CI, 0.65-0.99; P = 0.04). No significant heterogeneity was detected (P = 0.5; I(2) = 0%). The effect of plasma exchange did not differ significantly across the range of baseline serum creatinine values (P = 0.7) or number of plasma exchange treatments (P = 0.8). The RR for end-stage renal disease was 0.64 (95% CI, 0.47-0.88; P = 0.006), whereas the RR for death alone was 1.01 (95% CI, 0.71-1.4; P = 0.9).

Although the primary result was statistically significant, there is insufficient statistical information to reliably determine whether plasma exchange decreases the composite of end-stage renal disease or death.

Plasma exchange may decrease the composite end point of end-stage renal disease or death in patients with renal vasculitis. Additional trials are required given the limited data available.