Dark Banquet - Bill Schutt [45]
Basically, then, any human-to-human transfusions performed before the discovery of ABO typing were really just crapshoots. And animal-to-human transfusions (as well as transfusions of alcoholic beverages like wine and beer)—they were just plain weird.
On a related note about blood typing, since erythrocytes in people with type O blood have neither A nor B antigens, in theory, their blood isn’t recognized as foreign by any recipient’s immune system (no matter what the recipient’s blood type may be). Because of this, those with type O blood are sometimes referred to as universal donors.
Likewise, since people with type AB blood (a blood group discovered by Landsteiner’s colleagues several years later) have both types of antigens, they can theoretically receive blood from any donor. As a result, people with type AB blood are known as universal recipients.
Unfortunately, the labels universal donor and universal recipient are somewhat misleading since there are other antigens and antibodies in the blood besides those of the ABO system. In modern times, blood is carefully cross-matched and screened for pathogens and toxic substances before any transfusions take place.
The work of Vesalius, Al-Nafis, and Harvey contributed to the less-than-timely discrediting of Hypocrites’ humoral system, but by the early twentieth century physicians and researchers knew that bacteria and other pathogenic organisms were the cause of most diseases. Drugs like aspirin appeared in the late nineteenth century and the first antibiotics followed some thirty years later. These new treatments rapidly replaced bloodletting as methods to combat many ailments and to reduce the discomfort from wounds, inflammation, and fever.
Surprisingly, though (or not surprisingly, considering just how long the procedure was employed), therapeutic phlebotomy has shown a positive effect in alleviating some symptoms—especially those tied to elevated blood pressure or increased blood volume.
For example, aneurysms occur when a weakened portion of an artery bulges outward like a blood-filled water balloon. As the heart beats, the aneurysm pulsates (like rhythmically squeezing a baseball-sized water balloon in your hand). In some instances, there is a warning—as the vessel walls stretch, pain receptors connected to the surface of the vessel are stimulated. Unfortunately, in most instances the aneurysm is painless and goes undetected. The real danger from an aneurysm is fairly obvious, and if this “water balloon” pops, the results can be deadly. Many strokes result from ruptured aneurysms in the brain and a burst aortic aneurysm can lead to massive hemorrhaging and death within a matter of minutes.
Aneurysms can occur for any number of reasons including high blood pressure and arteriosclerosis. In the latter, this “hardening of the arteries” reduces blood vessel elasticity and produces weakened regions of the vessel wall that can bulge under the pressure of the blood carried within it.
In the days before the discovery of penicillin, aortic aneurysms were a common side effect of syphilis. Regular bleeding of patients with syphilis-related aneurysms was a way of reducing their blood pressure and thus lessening the chance of having their