Special therapeutic methods
The following special therapeutic methods are applied to the treatment of patients suffering from neurological and neuromuscular diseases.
Therapeutic plasmapheresis
Patients suffering from a so-called Guillain-Barré syndrome (=GBS, ascending paralysis) receive plasmapheresis and other treatment in the recovery room or on the intensive care ward. This involves taking a larger volume (approx. 2,000 ml) of plasma from the patient (just like for a plasma donation before major operations). Blood plasma is a clear, yellowish liquid containing more than 2,500 vital proteins which play an important role for infection defense and coagulation. To stop or reduce the "Guillain-Barré syndrome", the treatment intends to remove some proteins, the so-called autoantibodies which are a cause of this syndrome, from the patient's body. Some of the proteins are afterwards replaced by donating alloproteins (human serum albumin). GBS treatment requires several repeats of this treatment.
Non-invasive mask respiration NIMR ("home respiration")
Patients suffering from some neuromuscular diseases (such as infants and children suffering from spinal muscular atrophy - SMA - or adolescents suffering from Morbus Duchenne and grown-ups suffering from paraplegia or ALS who develop a respiratory insufficiency in the course of their illness) come to our intensive care ward to be stabilised by means of so-called non-invasive mask respiration. This treatment consists of giving the patients (from infants to grown-ups) an exactly tailored nose mask attached to special respirator which controls their breathing either continuously or only at nighttime. At the stabilisation stage, the patients' cardiovascular parameters are continuously monitored to be able to react to any complications that may occur. After two to seven days, patients are successfully introduced to non-invasive mask respiration. They can leave the hospital and take the respirator with them to continue respiration therapy at home which is why this treatment is also referred to as home respiration.