Rheopheresis as Adjuvant Treatment of Calciphylaxis

Calciphylaxis, also known as uremic calcifying arteriolopathy (UCA), is a rare disease that causes painful ischemic skin lesions due to microvascular calcification and thrombosis of the dermis and subcutaneous adipose tissue. Patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) are the main target for calciphylaxis. Rheopheresis is a therapeutic apheresis to treat microcirculatory disorders. This double filtration plasmapheresis eliminates a defined spectrum of high molecular weight proteins from human plasma including relevant factors for vascular inflammation and thrombose. The investigators propose a prospective randomized controlled trial to compared the efficacy of rheopheresis as adjuvant treatment to the standard of care compared to standard care with Sham-apheresis.