Introduction:

COVID-19 is a pneumonia caused by the new SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, which can present with severe symptoms, acute respiratory distress (ARDS), multiple organ dysfunction and death; as a consequence of a dysregulated inflammatory response called “cytokine storm”. Plasmapheresis is proposed as a promising treatment strategy for the management of this type of complications.

Objective:

our main objective is to show all the available bibliography, referring to the utility of plasmapheresis in the management of cytokine storm in patients with severe COVID-19; evaluate its possible benefit and propose new clinical trials to support the routine use of this therapy.

Methodology:

An advanced search was performed with the DeSC terms “Coronavirus Infections; SARS-CoV; Plasmapheresis; Plasma exchange; Multiple organic dysfunction; Sepsis; Systemic inflammatory response syndrome; Acute kidney injury ”. Through the search engines Clinical Key, Embase, PubMed and Ovid, obtaining a total of 156 results, among original articles, case reports, case series and literature reviews, a total of 54 articles were selected and used for the preparation of this literature review.

Conclusions:

Plasma replacement therapy could be used as a complementary treatment, with the aim of reducing inflammatory and viral loads, thus reducing target organ damage. However, it is necessary to carry out controlled clinical trials with good methodological designs that help us demonstrate the effectiveness of this type of therapy in patients with severe COVID-19.