Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: autologous blood transfusions

  • The curious history of autologous blood transfusions: Syringes and cheesecloths

    Denis ChenNewcastle-under-Lyme, United Kingdom  Autologous blood transfusion, the infusion of a patient’s own blood, is a relatively recent procedure. It was preceded historically by the classical descriptions of the blood by Hippocrates1 and Galen2; by the discovery of the circulation of blood by William Harvey and the description of the red blood cells by microscopist…