Surgery 1900 - 1918: Blood loss

Question 1

When were blood groups discovered and by who?

Answer 1

Karl Landsteiner in 1901

Question 2

How was blood loss prevented before 1900?

Answer 2

• Surgeons would use cauterisation. This is sealing blood vessels shut by burning them. Renaissance era doctors would do this by pouring boiling hot oil over the wound.
• Another method was developed in the sixteenth century by the French Surgeon Ambrose Paré. This was clipping blood vessels off with metal clips or tying them shut with silk ligatures. Lister later replaced the silk ligatures with catgut which could be sterilised.
• As there was no way of replacing lost blood surgeons would have to use a tourniquet (a clamp) to reduce blood flow.

Question 3

What was blood transfusion like before Landsteiner in 1900?

Answer 3

• Sheep to human transfer was sometimes successful when a tiny amount of blood was transfused. It often caused death however and was outlawed in 1670.
• The American Philip Syng Physick performed a successful human-to-human blood transfusion in 1795.
• The Briton James Blundell gave 10 blood transfusions between 1825 and 1830 but half of these led to death because of mismatched blood groups.

Question 4

When was Landsteiner’s work first used by who?

Answer 4

Reuben Ottenberg did the first blood typed transfusion in 1907.

Question 5

What were the crucial discoveries that led to blood banks?

Answer 5

• In 1914 a Belgian doctor discovered that sodium citrate prevented blood from clotting.
• The process of separating blood cells from plasma was developed.
• Blood could be stored, packed and diluted with saline.

Question 6

When was the first blood bank set up? What blood type did it carry?

Answer 6

• 1917

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