Red blood cell exchange in treatment of severe cerebral P. falciparum malaria: A case report

Introduction: Red blood cells exchange transfusion has been demonstrated to be helpful in treatment of sever P. falciparum malaria. However, no large scale randomized controlled trials have been completed to date and the CDC does not recommend RBC exchange transfusions as standard of care. We present a case of severe cerebral malaria in a patient with extremely high parasitemia and severe altered mental status who improved rapidly with automated RBC exchange.

Report: Seventy-two year old female presented with 1 day history of weakness, altered mental status, malaise, and cyclic sweats after returning from a trip to Sierra Leone. Thick and Thin Smears demonstrated P. falciparum rings present and Quantitative malaria screen demonstrated 53.33% parasitemia. Patient was started on quinidine and doxycycline but continued to deteriorate. Automated RBC exchange transfusion was performed within 24 hours of admission and resulted in rapid improvement in symptomology. Repeat thick and thin smears revealed undetectable parasite load.

Conclusion: Automated RBC exchange may improve outcomes in severe P. falciparum malaria when presenting parasite loads are very high.