Home › T › Transfusion of Blood

Transfusion of Blood

a surgical operation by which blood is conveyed directly from the body of one person to that of another. The earliest case of transfusion of blood on record is that of Pope Innocent VIII., who was unsuccessfully operated on in April, 1492. Various experiments were afterward made by Wren and Lower in the transfusion of blood from one animal to another, and by Denys of Montpellier in injecting the blood of calves into human subjects; but the experiments were not attended with any great success, so that the operation into desuetude. It was not till about the year 1824, when Dr. Blundell published his work on "Physiological and Pathological Researches," that the transfusion of blood was regarded as a legitimate operation in obstetric surgery; and at the present day the operation is chiefly * restricted to cases of profuse hemorrhage in connection with labor, though it is sometimes practiced in cases of sudden and profuse hemorrhage from other causes. The operation is best performed by taking blood, instantly before injection, from the arm of a healthy person; but Dr. Brown-Sequard showed that the blood of various animals can be used in discriminately, provided only certain precautions be taken; and Professor Panum made the important discovery that defibrinated blood is in every respect as well suited for the operation as pure blood.