Plasma Donation Vs. Plasma Exchange at MDLifespan

Here at MD Lifespan, we are often asked, what is the difference between plasma donation and therapeutic plasma exchange? That's a great question. We're going to review some of the key differences between the two. Procedure Setup during plasma donation, the patient will have one needle inserted in their arm removing the blood. During a TPE procedure, the patient has one needle inserted in one arm removing the blood and one needle inserted in the other arm returning the blood back to the body. Appointment A plasma donation appointment takes less than an hour. TPE appointments take three hours on average. Plasma amounts Plasma donation ranging from 5 to 750 milliliters of plasma removed is three times more, ranging from 1500 to 2500 milliliters of plasma removed. Procedure Differences during plasma donation, the patient's blood is not treated with a mild anticoagulant to prevent clotting. The removed plasma is donated for medical use and the the patient may be given a small amount of saline in exchange for the removed plasma. During tpe, the patient's blood is treated with a mild anticoagulant to prevent clotting. Therefore, the plasma removed cannot be donated. The patient is given up to 2.5 liters of saline fluid and albumin in exchange for removing the plasma. Long Term Benefits There aren't any physical benefits to donating plasma. However, the patient can feel good about the charitable donation to help others needing plasma with tpe. The long term benefits are still being studied. However, each plasma exchange lowers the biomarkers related to aging, including autoimmune diseases, neurologic diseases, infections, cancer, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and more. If you would like to learn more about tpe, you can click the link below to download our free guide on therapeutic plasma exchange.