Department of Nephrology, Shanxi Province Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Xi’an; Department of Nephrology, Peking University People’s Hospital, Beijing; Department of Nephrology, Shanghai Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiaotong University, School of medicine, Shanghai, China
International Journal of Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics. 2015;53((5):):391-7.
BACKGROUND/AIM: The clinical benefits of plasmapheresis in the management of multiple myeloma-induced acute renal failure remain controversial. In this study, we conducted a meta-analysis to quantitatively evaluate the clinical efficacy of chemotherapy with or without plasmapheresis in the treatment of multiple myeloma patients with renal failure. METHODS Randomized controlled trials evaluating clinical efficacy of plasmapheresis were identified by searching PubMed
(from 1980 to November 2013) and EMBASE (from 1980 to November 2013). Outcomes subjected to meta-analysis were 6-month survival and dialysis-dependent rate. RESULTS Three randomized controlled studies were selected for meta-analysis. A total of 63 patients received chemotherapy only and 84 patients were given both chemotherapy and plasmapheresis. No difference was observed in 6-month survival rate between plasmapheresis and control group (75% vs. 66.7%; risk ratio, 0.92; 95% CI, 0.76 - 1.11; p = 0.39). 6-month dialysis-dependent ratio was significantly lower in patients treated with both chemotherapy and plasmapheresis than chemotherapy only (15.6% vs. 37.2%; risk ratio, 2.02; 95% CI, 1.03 - 3.96; p = 0.04). CONCLUSION Our meta-analysis results showed that plasmapheresis used as an adjunct to chemotherapy had a benefit in the management of dialysisdependent multiple myeloma patients with renal failure.
