Therapeutic Plasma Exchange as Management of Complicated Systemic Lupus Erythematosus and Other Autoimmune Diseases

INTRODUCTION: Autoimmune diseases include a diverse and complex group of pathologies with a broad clinical spectrum due to the production of autoantibodies, which generates multisystemic compromise. Therapeutic plasma exchange (TPE) is a good additive treatment for immunosuppression due to its action over the autoantibodies. OBJECTIVES: To describe the main clinical characteristics and outcomes of patients with systemic lupus erythematosus and other systemic autoimmune diseases managed with TPE. METHODOLOGY: This descriptive retrospective study enrolled patients with systemic autoimmune diseases who received TPE. RESULTS: In total, 66 patients with a median age of 33.5 years (24-53 years) were included; the majority were females [n=51 (77.27%)]. Forty (60.61%) patients were diagnosed with systemic lupus erythematosus. In these cases, the main indication for TPE was diffuse alveolar hemorrhage (DAH; n=20, 30.3%) and neurolupus (n=9, 13.6%). No TPE-related deaths occurred, and the main complication was hemorrhage, without significant differences among the four types of TPE solutions used. The overall outcome was improvement in 41 (62.12%) patients. CONCLUSION: TPE is safe and effective in patients with severe manifestations of autoimmune diseases.