P/N 53063-30, Manual revision: B
1-6
Presenting the Cell Saver 5+ System
Historical overview
The following paragraphs summarize the history of transfusion methods.
Early experiments with transfusion
Some of the earliest recorded attempts at transfusion were undertaken by a
French physician, Jean Denys, who in the 1660’s performed transfusions
between animals and humans with predictably disastrous results
2
.
Quite reasonably, the French government stepped in and forbade the trans-
fusion of blood except with the permission of a member of the Faculty of
Medicine of Paris (which was strongly opposed to the practice). Rumors of
Denys’ experiments and his results were circulated throughout Europe, and
fear of such practices spread to other countries.
In 1818 an English surgeon, James Blundell, reported on a human-to-human
transfusion which he had performed (though unsuccessfully).
Blundell later did perform successful transfusions, and his are the first
recorded successes
3
.
More importantly, Blundell’s attempts were relatively scientific and he
recorded a great deal of useful information on transfusion. He also noted
that the donation of a small quantity of blood produced no harmful effects
on the donor
4
.
First recorded uses of autologous transfusion
In the late 1800’s, an English surgeon named James Highmore proposed the
use of autotransfusion (another term used for
autologous transfusion
) and
suggested that a patient’s own shed blood was an overlooked source which
could be used to great advantage. His article which appeared in
The Lancet
in 1874, advocated intra-operative autotransfusion, specifically in the case
of post-partum hemorrhage
5
.
Highmore later recorded his successful use of
autotransfusion in a variety of cases
6
.
The use and acceptance of homologous blood
In the early 1900’s, techniques for typing and matching blood were devel-
oped. Homologous transfusions gradually became accepted, though the
general method remained the transfusion of blood directly from donor to
recipient, rather than the use banked blood.
The first blood bank was established at Cook County Hospital, Chicago on
March 15, 1937. However, the real rise of homologous transfusions came
during World War II
7
. There was a great need for blood during the war, as
would be expected, and the donor pool in the United States grew enor-
mously to meet this need. Using banked blood was quite simply the easiest
alternative and homologous transfusions became the norm.
