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not responding to treatment -any other ideas

Post a new topicby amber on Thu Nov 15, 2007 4:29 pm


hi, my brother has been in the hospital for about 1.5 months now, he is 26 years old, and has been diagnosed with ttp/hus and kidney failure. he was not responding to the plama pheresis and dialysis, so they tried this drug on him that is still in trials called rotuximab. at first he seemed to respond very well to it. his platlets went from nothing to 260 in days. we thought he was better -then he got a real nasty infection and they (doctors) were concerned that it was in the "port" in his chest (the giant catheter they use to dialysize him and give him plasma) so they had to take it out. becuase he had already had ports in his femoral veins and his chest, they had to wait four days to dialysize him again (till they could safley put in a new catheter) after 2 days without dialysis, he became very nauseated, bad headaches, and his bloodwork went to hell and his platlets were down to 70. they have dialysized him twice and had plasma pheresis, and still his platlets continue to drop. the nephrologist believes that he has a "resistant strain" of ttp/hus (or whichever, they never really decided which he had, becuase the treatment was the same) he never had any of the neuro symptoms, excepts after a month of treatment, he had to go two days without dialysis, and he started having back to back grand mal seizures the neurologists believe it was because his BUN/creatinine was so high, the nephrologists believe it was a relapse of the ttp/hus. they are doing a kidney biopsy as we speak, and i dont really know why. all the doctors seem to be extremely confused as to why he isnt responding -they have already ruled out auto-immune disorders and have determined that he prob had an e-coli infection. are there any other known treatments for ttp/hus, and what is this cryo-plasmapherisis that i saw. what is the difference? he has anaphylactic reactions to the plasma, and the rotuximab so they have to load him up with anti-allergic drugs before administering. i guess im just hoping that there is some new treatment, or something that maybe the doctors here havnt thought of yet. also, if anyone knows a real life dr. house, that would be awesome too :) thanks!

amber
 
Posts: 1 | Joined: Thu Nov 15, 2007 4:09 pm