[Exchange plasmapheresis in combined treatment of severe uveitis]

Exchange plasmapheresis (EP) has been employed in multiple-modality therapy of 15 patients suffering from severe uveitis. The traditional therapy has yielded but a short-term effect and failed to stabilize the process in these patients. EP has resulted in improvement in all the patients: the injection has reduced, as well as the number of precipitates and oracities in the vitreous body; hemorrhages in the fundus oculi have resolved, and the vision acuity has considerably improved in 11 of the 15 patients; no cases of the deterioration of the vision acuity have been recorded. The relapses have ceased in 10 patients. EP has been well tolerated and yielded no complications; it has normalized the levels of the blood serum immunoglobulins and circulating immune complexes and activized phagocytosis.