Lexington Medical Center is using a treatment called therapeutic plasma exchange, known as “PLEX,” to help critically ill COVID-19 patients.

This treatment replaces a sick patient’s “dysfunctional” plasma with healthy plasma. The idea is that plasma from a healthy person can help a patient fight COVID-19. While this treatment has been used for many years for other conditions, medical intensive care physicians at Lexington Medical Center began using it for patients with COVID-19 in March 2020.

Therapeutic plasma exchange is different than the more widely used convalescent plasma, which transfuses plasma from a recovered COVID-19 patient. Lexington Medical Center is one of only a handful of hospitals in the nation using therapeutic plasma exchange for COVID-19 patients.

Lexington Medical Center physicians have been encouraged by the positive outcomes and recovery of some COVID-19 patients who received therapeutic plasma exchange. They believe PLEX may be one of many tools effective in treating COVID-19 for some patients.