Editing Plasmapheresis (section)

== History ==
[[File:Grifols Cohn 1951.jpg|thumb|[[Edwin Joseph Cohn|Edwin J. Cohn]] & {{ill|Josep Antoni Grífols i Roig|ca}} at the 4th International Congress of Blood Transfusion, Lisbon, 1951]]

Plasmapheresis was originally described by doctors Vadim A. Yurevick and Nicolay Rosenberg of the [[S. M. Kirov Military Medical Academy|Imperial Medical and Surgical Academy of Saint Petersburg]] in 1913.<ref>{{cite journal |last1= Yurevick |first1=V.A. |last2= Rosenberg |first2=N. |title= For the Question Regarding Washing of Blood Outside of the Body and the Vitality of Red Blood Cells. |journal= Russki Vratch |date=1913 |volume=18}}</ref> and John Abel and [[Leonard Rowntree]] of [[Johns Hopkins Hospital]] in 1914.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Abel |first1=J.J. |last2=Rowntree|first2=L.G. |last3=Turner|first3=B.B. |title=On the removal of diffusible substances from the circulating blood by means of dialysis. |journal=J Pharmacol Exp Ther |date=1914 |volume=5 |pages=275–316}}</ref> Both studies carried out on animals, are considered precedent to subsequent studies held in humans and offered the first description of the technique. The first studies of the effects of plasmapheresis on humans were undertaken during the WWII period, and the results were reported in a study over six plasma donors presented by doctors Co Tui, F.C. Bartter and A.M. Wright in 1944.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Co Tui |last2= Bartter|first2=F.C. |last3= Wright|first3=A.M. |title=Red cell reinfusion and the frequency of plasma donation. |journal=JAMA |date=1944 |volume=124 |issue= 6|pages=331–6|doi= 10.1001/jama.1944.02850060001001}}</ref>

Aware of the rising demand for plasma for transfusion, Dr. [[Josep Antoni Grífols-Lucas]] conducted the first systematic study of the application of plasmapheresis in a series of plasma donors. Performed in 1951, this was the most exhaustive study to date of the medium-term effects on the human body, and involved more than 320 plasmapheresis procedures. Grifols-Lucas concluded that it was possible for donors to undergo plasmapheresis on a weekly basis without the quality of their plasma suffering, while the method also made it possible to obtain a larger quantity of plasma when compared to the conventional method of whole blood donation. The results of the study were presented at the 4th International Congress of Blood Transfusion in Lisbon (1951), and were published in 1952 in the ''[[British Medical Journal]]''<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Grífols-Lucas|first1=J.A. |title=Use of plasmapheresis in blood donors. |journal=Br Med J |date=1952 |volume=1 |issue=4763 |pages=854|doi=10.1136/bmj.1.4763.854 |pmid=14916171 |pmc=2023259 }}</ref> and Medicina Clínica in Spain.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Grífols-Lucas|first1=J.A. |title= Primeras aplicaciones de la plasmaféresis en el hombre. |journal=Medicina Clínica |date=1952 |volume=18 |issue=4 |pages=301–2}}</ref>

At the Lisbon congress, Grifols-Lucas met [[Edwin Joseph Cohn|Edwin Cohn]]. While Grifols-Lucas was presenting a safe technique for obtaining large quantities of plasma from healthy donors, Cohn presented a plasma fractionator, a device that separated out the proteins contained in plasma. These two major contributions marked the birth of a new industry: plasma fractionation to obtain plasma products.<ref name="Avellà">{{Cite book |last1=Avellà |first1=R. |last2=Miquel |first2=B. |title= Cuando un sueño se cumple. Crónica ilustrada de 75 años de Grifols |publisher=Grupo Grifols, S.A. |year=2015 |isbn= 978-84-697-1739-4}}</ref> In 1955, further data were presented at the 5th Congress of the European Hematology Society, in Freiburg, Germany, based on the ongoing performance of plasmapheresis over a five-year period. In 1956 Grifols-Lucas presented the results at the 6th Congress of the International Hematology Society in Boston, US.<ref name="Avellà" />

Michael Rubinstein was the first to use plasmapheresis to treat an immune-related disorder when he saved the life of an adolescent boy with [[thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura]] (TTP) at the [[Cedars of Lebanon Hospital]] in Los Angeles in 1959.<ref name="Wallace">Wallace, D.J. "Apheresis for lupus erythematosus". ''Lupus'' (1999) 8, 174–80.</ref> The modern plasmapheresis process itself originated in the U.S. [[National Cancer Institute]] between 1963 and 1968, where investigators drew upon an old dairy creamer separation technology first used in 1878 and refined by [[Edwin Joseph Cohn|Edwin Cohn]]'s centrifuge marketed in 1953.<ref name="Wallace" />

In 1965, Dr. Víctor Grifols-Lucas, brother of Josep Antoni Grifols-Lucas, patented the device, along with the procedure for performing plasmapheresis ''in situ'',<ref>{{patent|ES|309216|application|V. Grifols Lucas: "Aparato para practicar, in situ, la plasmaféresis". Madrid: Oficina Española de Patentes. Filing date 1965}}</ref> that is, with the donor present. This replaced a fragmented, manual process with a continuous automatic method which enabled blood components to be extracted, separated and returned to the donor in a single procedure. The new device made plasmapheresis faster and simpler, and also made it safer for donors.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Pérez |first1=Paloma Fernández |title=Pioneers and Challengers in the Global Plasma Protein Industry, 1915-2015 |journal=Historical Social Research / Historische Sozialforschung |date=2019 |volume=44 |issue=4 (170) |pages=75–95 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/26804867 |access-date=5 January 2025 |issn=0172-6404}}</ref>