%0 Journal Article
%T HemoClear: A Practical and Cost-Effective Alternative to Conventional Convalescent Plasma Retrieval Methods.
%A Nierich A
%A Bihariesingh R
%A Bansie R
%J Curr Top Microbiol Immunol
%V 0
%N 0
%D 2024 Aug 11
%M 39126485
%F 4.737
%R 10.1007/82_2024_276
%X Convalescent plasma has increasingly been used to treat various viral infections and confer post-exposure prophylactic protection during the last decade and has demonstrated favorable clinical outcomes in patients infected with Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) during the recent COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic has highlighted the need for cost-effective, accessible, and easy-to-use alternatives to conventional blood plasmapheresis techniques, allowing hospitals to become more self-sufficient in harvesting and transfusing donor plasma into recipients in a single setting. To this end, the use of a membrane-based bedside plasmapheresis device (HemoClear) was evaluated in an open-label, non-randomized prospective trial in Suriname in 2021, demonstrating its practicality and efficacy in a low-to middle-income country. This paper will review the use of this method and its potential to expedite the process of obtaining convalescent plasma, especially during pandemics and in resource-constrained settings.