Background: The aim of this study is to characterize the clinical indications, outcomes, and complications of therapeutic plasma exchange (TPE) in pediatric intensive care unit.
Methods: A retrospective study was conducted on critically ill patients who received TPE. A dataset of 672 treatments administered to 102 patients was analyzed.
Results: The most common indication for TPE was COVID-19-related clinical conditions, followed by sepsis (24.5%), neurological diseases (9.8%) and renal diseases (6.9%). None of our patients died due to TPE-related complications, and the most common complication during and after the TPE was hypotension (21.7%).
Conclusion: Although TPE is riskier to provide to critically ill children, our experience indicates that it can be performed relatively safely in critically ill children with appropriate treatment indications. In particular, indications, onset time, number of sessions and other procedures should be standardized for the pediatric age group.
Keywords: child; critical illness; plasmapheresis; sepsis.
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