A controlled trial evaluating intensive plasma exchange in renal transplant recipients.

Sixty patients have been entered into a controlled trial evaluating the use of intensive plasma exchange (IPE) in renal transplant recipients. During the first three months post-transplant, patients receive either conventional anti-rejection therapy alone (control group) or conventional anti-rejection therapy and IPE (IPE group) for all rejection episodes. Twenty percent of the grafts in the control group versus 10% in the IPE group have been lost to rejection (p = NS). The actual three month patient and graft survival in the control group (97% and 70%), respectively, is similar to the IPE group (94% and 80%), as is the one year actuarial graft and patient survival in the two groups. No statistically significant benefit of IPE has yet been demonstrated but the trend is encouraging and the complication rate sufficiently low so as to justify continuing the study.