Blood transfusion: The genesis

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.33910/2687-1270-2022-3-3-286-307

Keywords:

blood circulation, blood transfusion, history of physiology, history of medicine, James Blundell

Abstract

The 19th century witnessed the genesis of blood transfusion, whose history goes back several centuries. Then, after a century and a half of oblivion, an interest in blood transfusion revived again. The major contribution to the development of blood transfusion was made by the graduates of the University of Edinburgh. High among them was James Blundell, who performed the first human-to-human transfusion in 1818. His contribution is one of the first systematic studies in this field and ushered in a new era of transfusion medicine. He, along with his followers, many of whom are undeservedly forgotten, proved the danger of heterologous blood transfusions, found that venous blood was as suitable as arterial blood, developed approaches to preventing blood clotting (warming, defibrination, anticoagulants), improved transfusion techniques and equipment, and noted it was important to avoid air inside the transfusion set. The development of blood transfusion encouraged research into the intravenous injection of various liquids and gases contributing to the development of intravenous therapy. However, blood transfusion was being introduced into the medical practice slowly, as it often led to the death of patients. This was due to the imperfection of the procedure and tools and unawareness of human blood incompatibility. This review explores the key advances in the development of blood transfusion in foreign physiology and medicine in the 19th century.

References

Aminoff, M. J. (2017) The life and legacy of Brown-Sequard. Brain, vol. 140, no. 5, pp. 1525–1532. https://doi.org/10.1093/brain/awx071 (In English)

Ancell, H. (1840) Course of lectures of the physiology and pathology of the blood. Lecture XVII. Lancet, vol. 2, pp. 471–476. (In English)

Aveling, J. H. (1873) Immediate transfusion in England: Seven cases, and the author’s method of operating. Obstetrical Journal of Great Britain and Ireland, vol. 5, pp. 289–311. (In English)

Baskett, T. F. (2002) James Blundell: The first transfusion of human blood. Resuscitation, vol. 52, no. 3, pp. 229–233. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0300-9572(02)00013-8 (In English)

Berner, B. (2020) Strange blood. The rise and fall of lamb blood transfusion in 19th century medicine and beyond. Bielefeld: Transcript Verlag, 217 p. (In English)

Blundell, J. (1818) Experiments on the transfusion of blood by the syringe. Medico-Chirurgical Transactions, vol. 9, no. 1, pp. 56–92. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20895353 (In English)

Blundell, J. (1819) Some account of a case of obstinate vomiting, in which an attempt was made to prolong life by the injection of blood into the veins. Medico-Chirurgical Transactions, vol. 10, no. 2, pp. 296–311. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20895389 (In English)

Blundell, J. (1824) Researches physiological and pathological. London: E. Cox and Sons Publ., 146 p. (In English)

Blundell, J. (1828) Observations on transfusion of blood by Dr. Blundell with a description of his Gravitator. Lancet, vol. 2, pp. 321–324. (In English)

Coley, N. G. (2001) Early blood chemistry in Britain and France. Clinical Chemistry, vol. 47, no. 12, pp. 2166–2178. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11719488 (In English)

Cooper, D. Y. (2000) The evolution of orthopaedic surgeons from bone and joint surgery at the University of Pennsylvania. Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research, vol. 374, pp. 17–35. https://doi.org/10.1097/00003086-200005000-00004 (In English)

Doubleday, E. (1825) Case of uterine hemorrhage, successfully treated by the operation of transfusion. London Medical and Physical Journal, vol. 54, no. 321, pp. 380–386. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30494774 (In English)

Duncan, J. (1886) On re-infusion of blood in primary and other amputations. British Medical Journal, vol. 1, no. 1309, pp. 192–193. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.1.1309.192 (In English)

Dzik, S. (2018) James Blundell, obstetrical hemorrhage, and the origins of transfusion medicine. Transfusion Medicine Reviews, vol. 32, no. 4, pp. 205–212. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tmrv.2018.08.003 (In English)

Ellis, H. (2007) James Blundell, pioneer of blood transfusion. British Journal of Hospital Medicine, vol. 68, no. 8, p. 447. https://doi.org/10.12968/hmed.2007.68.8.24500 (In English)

Farr, A. D. (1981) Treatment of haemophilia by transfusion: The first recorded case. Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, vol. 74, no. 4, pp. 301–305. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/7014901 (In English)

Giangrande, P. L. (2000) The history of blood transfusion. British Journal of Haematology, vol. 110, no. 4, pp. 758–767. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2141.2000.02139.x (In English)

Hajdu, S. I. (2003) Blood transfusion from antiquity to the discovery of the Rh factor. Annals of Clinical and Laboratory Science, vol. 33, no. 4, pp. 471–473. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/14584763 (In English)

Hunter, W. (1889) Summary of three lectures on transfusion: Its physiology, pathology and practice. British Medical Journal, vol. 2, no. 1493, pp. 305–309. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.2.1493.305 (In English)

Ivanov, D. O., Petrenko, Yu. V. (2012) Etapy perelivaniya krovi v akusherstve i pediatrii [Stages of the history of blood transfusion in obstetrics and pediatrics]. Problemy zhenskogo zdorov’ya, vol. 7, no. 2, pp. 79–87. (In Russian)

Jennings, C. E. (1883) Transfusion: Its history, indications, and modes of application. London: Leonard & Comp. Publ., 69 р. (In English)

Jones, H. W., Mackmull, G. (1928) The influence of James Blundell on the development of blood transfusion. Annals of Medical History, vol. 10, no. 3, pp. 242–248. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33943586 (In English)

Kibbie, A. L. (2019) Blood and sympathy in the nineteenth-century literary imagination. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 294 p. (In English)

Learoyd, P. (2012) The history of blood transfusion prior to the 20th century. Pt. 2. Transfusion Medicine, vol. 22, no. 6, pp. 372–376. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-3148.2012.01189.x (In English)

Madge, H. M. (1874) On transfusion of blood. British Medical Journal, vol. 1, no. 680, pp. 42–44. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.1.680.42 (In English)

Maluf, N. S. (1954) History of blood transfusion. Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences, vol. 9, no. 1, pp. 59–107. https://doi.org/10.1093/jhmas/ix.1.59 (In English)

McLoughlin, G. (1959) The British contribution to blood transfusion in the nineteenth century. British Journal of Anaesthesia, vol. 31, pp. 503–516. (In English)

Middleton, W. S. (1929) Philip Syng Physick: Father of American surgery. Annals of Medical History, vol. 1, no. 5, pp. 562–582. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33944299 (In English)

Myhre, B. A. (1995) James Blundell—pioneer transfusionist. Transfusion, vol. 35, no. 1, pp. 74–78. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1537-2995.1995.35195090668.x (In English)

Nikitina, E. A. (2012) Nasledovanie grupp krovi [The inheritance of blood groups]. Saint Petersburg: Herzen State Pedagogical University of Russia Publ., 105 p. (In Russian)

Nikitina, E. A. (2020) Perelivanie krovi: nachalo [Blood transfusion: The beginning]. Integrativnaya fiziologiya — Integrative Physiology, vol. 1, no. 3, pp. 169–180. https://doi.org/10.33910/2687-1270-2020-1-3-169-180 (In Russian)

Oberman, H. A. (1969) Early history of blood substitutes: Transfusion of milk. Transfusion, vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 74–77. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1537-2995.1969.tb04920.x (In English)

Pelis, K. (1997) Blood clots: The nineteenth-century debate over the substance and means of transfusion in Britain. Annals of Science, vol. 54, no. 4, pp. 331–360. https://doi.org/10.1080/00033799700200271 (In English)

Poon, M.-Ch., Card, R. T. (2019) Samuel Armstrong Lane’s first successful treatment of haemophilia with blood transfusion in 1840: Could this also be the first successful bypassing therapy? Haemophilia, vol. 25, no. 1, pp. e45–e47. https://doi.org/10.1111/hae.13645 (In English)

Roper-Hall, G, Jorgensen, H. (2008) Historical vignette: Peter Ludvig Panum (1820–1885), danish physician and physiologist. American Journal of Orthopedics, vol. 58, pp. 99–107. https://doi.org/10.3368/aoj.58.1.99 (In English)

Roux, F. A., Saï, P., Deschamps, J. Y. (2007) Xenotransfusions, past and present. Xenotransplantation, vol. 14, no. 3, pp. 208–216. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1399-3089.2007.00404.x (In English)

Roussel, J.-A. (1877) Transfusion of human blood by the method of J. Roussel (of Geneva). London: J. & A. Churchill Publ., 96 p. (In English)

Schmidt, P. J. (1968) Transfusion in America in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. New England Journal of Medicine, vol. 279, no. 24, pp. 1319–1320. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJM196812122792406 (In English)

Schmidt, P. J. (2002) Transfuse George Washington! Transfusion, vol. 42, no. 2, pp. 275–277. https://doi.org/10.1046/ j.1537-2995.2002.00033.x (In English)

Schmidt, P. J. (2004) Edinburgh and early transfusion in the New World. Vox Sanguinis, vol. 87, no. 2, pp. 81–83. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1741-6892.2004.00458.x (In English)

Schmidt, P. J., Leacock, A. G. (2002) Forgotten transfusion history: John Leacock of Barbados. British Medical Journal, vol. 325, no. 7378, pp. 1485–1487. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.325.7378.1485 (In English)

Sergeeva, M. S., Panova, E. L. (2021) Brilliant promotion for a doubtful invention: The blood transfusion device of doctor Joseph-Antoine Roussel (1837–1901) in European medical science and practice in 1860–1880. Bylye Gody, vol. 16, no. 1, pp. 244–252. (In English)

Sheldon, G. F. (2012) To the shade of John Hunter: Philip Syng Physick of Philadelphia, “the father of American Surgery”—Hunter’s favorite American trainee. Journal of the American College of Surgeons, vol. 215, no. 5, pp. 731–736. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jamcollsurg.2012.05.036 (In English)

Shifman, E. M., Filippovich, G. V. (2006) Dzhejms Blandell i “Edinburgskij sled” v razvitii gemotransfusii (sobstvennoe issledovanie) [James Blundell and the Edinburg trace in the development of hemotransfusion (the authors’ own study)]. Obshchaya reanimatologiya — General Reanimatology, vol. 2, no. 3, pp. 61–66. (In Russian)

Smythe, W. R. (2003) The first American textbook of surgery. Annals of Surgery, vol. 237, no. 4, pp. 580–590. https://doi.org/10.1097/01.SLA.0000059993.87288.7E (In English)

Soden, J. (1852) A Case of Hæmorrhage from Inversion of the Uterus in which the Operation of Transfusion was successfully performed, with remarks on the employment of transfusion generally. Medico-Chirurgical Transactions, vol. 35, pp. 413–435. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20895989 (In English)

Sturgis, C. C. (1942) The history of blood transfusion. Bulletin of the Medical Library Association, vol. 30, no. 2, pp. 105–112. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16016531 (In English)

Thompson, P., Strandenes, G. (2020) The history of fluid resuscitation for bleeding. In: P. Spinella (ed.). Damage Control Resuscitation. Switzerland: Springer Publ., pp. 3–29. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-20820-2_1 (In English)

Waller, C. (1825) Case of uterine hemorrhage, in which the operation of transfusion was successfully performed. London Medical and Physical Journal, vol. 54, no. 320, pp. 273–277. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30494818 (In English)

Walter, W. (1884) Portable transfusion apparatus. British Medical Journal, vol. 2, no. 1251, pp. 1233. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.2.1251.1233 (In English)

Wright, A. E. (1894) Remarks on methods of increasing and diminishing the coagulability of the blood, with especial reference to their therapeutic employment. British Medical Journal, vol. 2, no. 1750, pp. 57–61. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.2.1750.57 (In English)

Young, J. H. (1964) James Blundell (1790–1878): Experimental physiologist and obstetrician. Medical History, vol. 8, no. 2, pp. 159–169. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0025727300029409 (In English)

Zimmerman, L. M., Howell, K. M. (1932) History of blood transfusion. Annals of Medical History, vol. 4, no. 5, pp. 415–433. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33944186 (In English)

Downloads

Published

2022-11-30

Issue

Vol. 3 No. 3 (2022)

Section

Reviews

License

Copyright (c) 2022 Ekaterina A. Nikitina

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

The work is provided under the terms of the Public Offer and of Creative Commons public license Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0). This license allows an unlimited number of persons to reproduce and share the Licensed Material in all media and formats. Any use of the Licensed Material shall contain an identification of its Creator(s) and must be for non-commercial purposes only.