Apheresis Medicine
Apheresis is the process by which blood is circulated out of a patient’s body, and run through specialised equipment which is able to remove certain components within the patient’s blood, and then the remaining blood is delivered back to the patient in a continuous or semi-continuous circuit. Apheresis is used to collect stem cells prior to stem cell transplantation (a treatment used for numerous blood cancers, some other cancers and some non-cancer conditions), to remove excessive white blood cells or platelets when the circulation is being put at risk, to remove unwanted proteins from the blood, and to ‘wash out’ unwanted blood components and allow replacement with healthy blood components. Numerous haematology, neurology and rheumatology disorders are treated using apheresis. Dr Herbert has a specific interest in this area of medicine and at The Blood Unit we utilise the apheresis services at Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Monash Medical Centre and The Alfred as well as other centres on occasion, where these treatments are required by our patients.
