[Blood ultrafiltration in postoperative brain edema-swelling in neuro-oncology patients].

A hundred and sixteen postoperative patients after removal of various brain tumors in whom brain edema developed were treated with 1-3 courses of blood ultrafiltration (BUF). 0.5-9.0 liters of ultrafiltrate was removed. BUF does not lead to blood concentration due to the movement of the fluid from intracellular to intravascular space. BUF allows to decrease the amount of toxic medium-sized peptides and osmolarity discriminant. Seldom the minor complications were observed because of usage of the plate shaped dialyzers. When the capillary dialyzers were used, no complications were noted. BUF may be recommended in patients with brain tumors in early postoperative period when traditional medical management does not seem to be effective enough. The technique helps to reduce the duration of brain edema in treated patients by 8-10 days vs. controls treated traditionally.