Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
Bloodletting (or blood-letting) is the deliberate withdrawal of blood from a patient to prevent or cure illness and disease. Bloodletting, whether by a physician or by leeches , was based on an ancient system of medicine in which blood and other bodily fluids were regarded as " humours " that had to remain in proper balance to maintain health.
A phlebotomy draw station is a place where blood is drawn from patients for laboratory testing, transfusions, donations, or research purposes. The blood is typically drawn via venipuncture or a finger stick by a healthcare professional such as a phlebotomist, nurse, or medical assistant. [21]
The name is most likely derived from phlebotome: phlebos, Greek for blood vessel and tome, meaning to cut. [2] These instruments are the progression from the early use of fish teeth, sharpened stones, and thorns used to penetrate blood vessels. The earliest known examples are made of bronze with a myrtle-leaf shape to the blade.
Franz Anton Maulbertsch's The Quack (c. 1785) shows barber surgeons at work. Bloodletting set of a barber surgeon, beginning of 19th century, Märkisches Museum Berlin. The barber surgeon was one of the most common European medical practitioners of the Middle Ages, generally charged with caring for soldiers during and after battle.
Bloodletting or a phlebotomy was a common practice in ancient Rome. It was common for surgeons to use a tool known as the phlebotome or the katias to make an incision into another point, which would cause the wound to bleed at another point. [98] [99] Another process involved putting a burning piece of cloth into the patient's mouth to draw out ...
A phlebotomist performing bloodletting on a patient drained the blood straight from the veins. "Wet" cupping, a form of bloodletting, was performed by making a slight incision in the skin and drawing blood by applying a heated cupping glass. The heat and suction from the glass caused the blood to rise to the surface of the skin to be drained.
If too little blood is collected, the ratio of blood-to-nutrient broth will inhibit the growth of microorganisms. If too much blood is collected, there is the risk of a hospital-induced anemia and the ratio of blood-to-nutrient broth will tilt in the opposite direction, which also is not conductive to optimal growth. [citation needed]
Breathing a Vein, a caricature of bloodletting by venesection by James Gillray, 1804 [1]. Heroic medicine, also referred to as heroic depletion theory, was a therapeutic method advocating for rigorous treatment of bloodletting, purging, and sweating to shock the body back to health after an illness caused by a humoral imbalance.