What happens during an apheresis therapy?

Apheresis therapy, sometimes called blood cleansing, gently and precisely removes harmful substances from the blood – including LDL cholesterol, lipoprotein(a), autoantibodies, and inflammatory messengers – to help reduce factors that contribute to disease.

Blood or plasma is extracted from the body through veins, cleaned outside the body using an apheresis machine and various filters, and then returned to the body.

Apheresis treatment lasts approximately two to three hours and is performed on an outpatient basis.

Procedure of apheresis

The therapeutic apheresis/Toxopherese® is a double-membrane filtration apheresis. The procedure itself has been in use as a treatment method in the medical field worldwide for 25 years.

Through apheresis, the blood plasma is relieved of disease-causing substances (such as antibodies or blood fats) using this special filter. The reduction of disease-causing substances like antibodies or blood fats can vary.

Procedure of apheresis:



The blood is drawn through 2 arm veins and continuously directed through a blood pump to a so-called plasma filter, which separates the blood in a ratio of 3:1 (3 parts blood to 1 part plasma).

The obtained plasma is fed to the special immune filter. The immune filter has the ability to filter antibodies and blood fats  from the plasma. 

Side effects

Overall, apheresis therapy is well-tolerated. Due to the fact that it is an “extracorporeal”  procedure, the following side effects may occur:

  1. Dizziness, drop in blood pressure, rarely heart rhythm disturbances
  2. Bleeding from the puncture sites
  3. Formation of a hematoma
  4. Nerve injury to a skin/arm nerve
  5. Allergic reaction to the blood thinning agent Heparin®
  6. Allergic reaction to foreign material (rare: 1 in 1,000,000)