A new method of blood transfusion / by A.E. Wright.

  • Wright, Almroth, 1861-1947.
Date:
1891
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A new method of blood transfusion / by A.E. Wright. 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.

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    2 his own blood in the course of a fortnight, a rise of tempera- ture of only 0.4° F. was recorded on the day following the second operation, and no changes in the blood corpuscles were detected upon microscopical examination. In the other cases the temperature observations were unfortunately omitted, but the animals were very lively, and fed well after the operation. In suggesting the application of this method of transfusion in the human subject in cases where transfusion is indicated, a certain amount of caution will, of course, have to be ob- served. The blood would have to be collected in small por- tions from the vein of the person supplying it. I would further suggest that until information has been obtained as to the precise amount of soluble oxalate necessary to complete the precipitation of the calcium in human blood, small samples of blood should be drawn off as a preliminary opera- tion into one-tenth of their volume of a 1, a U, and a 2 per cent.3 solution of oxalate of sodium. The blood should be thoroughly mixed with the oxalate solution as it flows from the vessel, for where this point has not been attended to, coagulation will often occur in blood, even in the presence of an excess of oxalate. When the correct addition of oxalate has thus been determined (the correct amount being naturally the least amount that will keep the blood perfectly liquid), the actual operation might be proceeded with. Even then, however, it will be expedient to draw off the blood in suc- cessive portions, and to keep these portions in separate vessels for some ten minutes at the temperature of the body before proceeding to the injection. By this method any portions which showed any sign of coagulation can be easily elimi- nated, while the other portions are injected into a vein. An excess of free oxalate is to be avoided, though it need not, as far as I have been able to judge, be over-anxiously avoided. To the pharmacologist the method of transfusion here sug- gested would appear to be of an obvious utility, as the de- calcified blood might be used as a vehicle for administration of drugs in pharmacological experiments. 3 A solution of this last strength I have found to be quite strong enough to keep bullock's blood perfectly liquid when properly mixed with it. It is therefore hardly to be anticipated that we should have to resort to any stronger solution in the case of human blood.