ABSTRACT

Sorbents have been used in a variety of forms to treat patients with various kinds of diseases. In general, sorbents have been considered for use in medicine in two basic ways. The first method is direct or indirect sorbent contact with body fluids (mostly blood or plasma) in an extracorporeal circuit that is commonly called hemoperfusion. In the second method sorbents are taken orally to sorb substances within the gastrointestinal tract.

In the first part of this chapter basic concepts of adsorption and ion exchange phenomena will be discussed briefly. Then, the nonspecific sorbents that have already been used in hemoperfusion columns or in series with hemoperfusion systems will be considered. Putting the emphasis on activated carbon, ion exchangers, uncharged resins, polyaldehydes and others will be included. In the last part of this article, the novel biospecific sorbents and their interesting applications will be reviewed.