A practical method for determining the amount of blood passing over during direct transfusion / E. Libman and R. Ottenberg.

  • Libman, Emanuel, 1872-1946.
Date:
1914
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: A practical method for determining the amount of blood passing over during direct transfusion / E. Libman and R. Ottenberg. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

    10/14 (page 8)
    table. The discrepancy of almost a pound, in Case 45, is hard to account for, but was probably <lue to sweatinfr. It is noticed that in all of the cases in which there was a discrepancy between the calculated and the observed blood transfer, it was the donor who was weighed and the discrepancy was always in the same direction, namely, the donor apparently lost more weight than he should have, by calculation. In the three instances (Cases 16, 31 and 49) in which it was possible to weigh the patients, the agreement between the cal- culated and the weighed amounts of blood was strikingly close. In most of the cases, however, the patient was far too ill to be put on the scales before transfusion, and the patients’ weights which are used as a basis of calculation are generally approximations arrived at from the weight which the patients were known to have had before illness. This, of course, constitutes also a slight source of inaccuracy in calculation. A recent indirect transfusion by the syringe method in which, of course, the exact amount of blood trans- fused was precisely known, has also given us the oppor- tunity to confirm the correctness of the calculation. In this ca.«e 900 c.c. (approximately 1.8 pounds) of blood were transfused. The patient’s weight was between 150 and 160 pounds. Tlis hemoglobin was 38 per cent. The hemoglobin of the transfu.«cd blood was 90 per cent. According to calculation, the patient’s hemoglobin should have been raised to 47.3 ])or cent, by tbc transfusion of the 900 e.c. It was actuallv raised to 48 per cent. The calculation used was the following: (sx:!.s) + (i..sx'.'0) r,-=47.n ppi- cpiit. '.1.8 Close examination of the figures in the table reveals the fact that in a number of cases the amount of blood transfused was very large in proportion, either to the blood volume of the donor or of the patient. Thus, in Case 10, the donor, weighing 161 pounds, had approxi- mately 8.4 pounds of blood; the 3.3 pounds which he lost was 40 per cent, of his blood-weight. He fainted on attempting to stand ten minutes after the trans- fusion, but was restored without stimulation, and had no further trouble. In Case 43, the donor weighed 169 pounds, and had 8.8 pounds of blood, so that the 3.4 pounds of blood