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Nicklaus Children’s Hospital has several outpatient and urgent care centers throughout South Florida, including on-demand, virtual care.
Walk-in urgent care with no appointment needed.
Serving as your child's primary doctor's office.
Pediatric specialty consultations available closer to home.
A full range of comprehensive services all under one roof.
Connect with providers from the comfort of your own home.
With over 800 pediatric clinicians on staff, we’re dedicated to helping you connect with the right specialist for your needs.
We have expertise in treating children and educating families on hundreds of different conditions.
We use cutting-edge, specialized treatments and procedures to ensure the best care for your child.
Also known as: plasma exchange.
Plasmapheresis is a medical procedure that can treat autoimmune and other disorders. It involves replacing the body’s plasma to prevent it from attacking the body’s healthy cells.
A catheter is used to draw blood from the body and pass it through a special machine. The machine removes the plasma from the blood and either replaces it with another solution or treats the plasma and returns it to the blood. Then the blood is returned to the body through a catheter. The treatment lasts 1 to 3 hours and may require several sessions to achieve the desired results.
No special preparation is needed for plasmapheresis.
Dizziness, lightheadedness, blurry vision, a feeling of coldness and stomach cramps, blood clotting or bleeding, infection and allergic reaction are potential symptoms of plasmapheresis.
Reviewed by: Balagangadhar Totapally, MD
This page was last updated on: August 03, 2020 12:23 PM
Acute disseminated encephalomyelitis is a brain disorder that occurs more often in children than adults. It involves an inflammatory response in the brain causing alteration of mental state and other neurologic symptoms.
MG in a rare chronic autoimmune disease in children of all ages, it is characterized by muscle weakness of varying degree in many different areas of the body, it commonly affects the eyes, mouth, throat, arms and legs.
An autoimmune disease occurs when the body’s immune system (the body's natural defense system against bacteria, viruses and other foreign invaders) mistakenly attacks its own organs and tissues.