[Treatment of thyroid storm with plasmapheresis (author's transl)]

The conventional treatment of thyrotoxicosis is based on central and periphery therapeutic measures which respectively block the thyroid hormone production and subdue the hormone effect in the tissue. On account of long biological hal-life of thyroxine conventional methods of treatment fail to achieve a rapid reduction of the excessively high serumhormone level. As the overwhelming proportion of thyroid hormone is boud to serum proteins, plasmapheresis presents itself as a possibility of achieving this therapeutic aim. In the following a report is given on the successful practice of plasmapheresis in two cases of thyrotoxiicosis. In each of these, 1.4 and 1.2 litres of plasma respectively were re moved in all. Immediate combined use of plasmapheresis and conventional therapy appears to constitute a definite improvement in the treatment of thyrotoxicosis.