Caitlin Raymond: Plasma Chasers and the Quiet Rituals of Apheresis
Caitlin Raymond, Assistant Professor of Pathology and Transfusion Medicine at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, shared on LinkedIn:
”I wrote a new piece this week about something I hadn’t encountered until I became an attending: the “plasma chaser.”
It’s not in ASFA guidelines, not in textbooks, and not something I ever saw in residency or fellowship. But it came up twice in two days, and it made me pause and think about how we make replacement-fluid decisions after recent procedures — and how much of that work happens in the gray space where physiology, experience, and uncertainty meet.
What I found, digging into the peer-reviewed survey data, is striking:
– 8.9% of clinicians still use albumin-only replacement one day after major surgery, a number much higher than I was expecting.
– Clinicians are split about 50/50 on using albumin vs plasma for replacement fluid a day following a minor procedure.
– For a patient scenario with no bleeding risk, 5.3% of clinicians will still use plasma, also higher than I was expecting.
There’s a story in those numbers – about risk perception, about judgment, and about how small, experience-driven practices evolve when formal guidance is limited.
In my blog post, I tried to unpack this… not to prescribe a standard, but to explore how we think through these nuanced decisions and why certain rituals persist in medicine. And also where a rational, physiologic framework can help us cut through the uncertainty.
If you’re interested in the intersection of transfusion medicine, clinical reasoning, and the quiet rituals we inherit in practice, you can read the full piece here.
Would love to hear how others approach post-procedure TPE decisions in their practice – especially where your institution aligns with (or diverges from) the survey data.”
Keep up with Hemostasis Today.
-
May 25, 2026, 05:25Abdullah Mohsin: Automated Detection of DVT Using Deep Learning and Doppler Ultrasound
-
May 25, 2026, 05:07The Dual Role of PAI-1 Mutations in Bleeding and Thrombotic Disorders – ICHCC
-
May 25, 2026, 05:04Fibrinogen αC Domain Lysines Drive Plasminogen Binding and Plasmin Generation – JTH
-
May 25, 2026, 04:50Gülşah Türkoğlu: An Encouraging Momentum Around the Adoption of Resolutions on Stroke Care at WHA79
-
May 25, 2026, 04:47Krishnakant Prasad: A Quick Clinical Review of Renal Papillary Necrosis
-
May 25, 2026, 04:40Rajiv Kumar Jain: World Health Assembly Adopts First-Ever Global Resolution on Stroke Prevention and Care
-
May 25, 2026, 04:23Sarfraz Ahmad: Diagnostic and Therapeutic Challenges in ICA Aneurysm Presenting With Epistaxis
-
May 24, 2026, 17:48Flora Peyvandi: Crucial Role of Placental ADAMTS13 in Perinatal Survival
-
May 24, 2026, 17:13Mahtab Mashayekhi: The Evolving Role of Red Blood Cell Exchange in the Management of SCD