[Plasmapheresis--an international determination of status]

The development of the therapeutic plasmapheresis reaches from the beginnings of the centrifugation technique in the early fifties and the appearance of membrane plasma filters in the late seventies up to numbers of treatment of about a quarter of a million a year all over the world. Instead of the former uncritical euphoria in the selection of patients nowadays a strict indication occupied the position. Efforts all over the world to confirm scientifically the efficacy of the plasmapheresis have not been finished up to now. Geographical differences in the diagnosis are in most cases the sequels of subjective factors of locally dominating working teams, which is demonstrated on the basis of international statistics. Specific modifications such as cascade filtration and plasma absorption are described.