Successful management of acute bleeding in essential thrombocythemia using automated cell separator

This case represents the challenging role of automated cell separators in management of acute hemorrhagic crisis in a young female patient of essential thrombocythemia. A 17 year old girl having body weight of 41 kg presented to us with profuse nasal bleed. Complete blood counts revealed extremely high platelet counts of 2987×10(9)/l. Due to no response by oral hydroxyurea for last 2 months, urgent mechanical platelet reduction was planned to prevent further complication. A rebound phenomenon of increase in circulating platelet count was observed after every therapeutic platelet reduction. Seven procedures had to be performed on alternate days to bring down the platelet counts to less than 600×10(9)/l. Patient was maintained on oral anagrelide therapy and discharged in a stable condition after 14 days. Therapeutic platelet reduction causes rapid platelet reduction and helps in managing acute complications.