Plasmapheresis is a term derived from the Greek ‘αϕαφϵιν’ meaning ‘withdrawal’ and first applied by Abel et al.1 in 1914 to a procedure involving venesection of dogs followed by separation of cellular elements from plasma and subsequent return of cells to the animals. This technique allowed the collection of large amounts of plasma, and was originally developed for the preparation of antisera. Later, it was applied to the collection of plasma from human volunteers during the Second World War2. Early therapeutic uses included the treatment of myeloma3 and of macroglobulinaemia4 in the 1950s, but the manual technique was too cumbersome for widespread application. The development of blood cell separators in the 1960s, however, allowed the collection of larger quantities of plasma more rapidly, and these devices were soon used in the treatment of liver disease, thyrotoxicosis, hypercholesterolaemia and Rhesus isoimmunization 5–8.