The Growing Demand for Bloodless Medicine and Surgery

 "All those dealing with blood and caring for surgical patients have to consider bloodless surgery." - Dr. Joachim  Boldt, professor of Anestesiology, Ludwigshafen, Germany.

THE tragedy of AIDS has compelled scientists and physicians to take additional steps to make the operating room a safer place.  Obviously, this has meant more strimget blood screening.  But experts  say that even these measures do not ensure zero-risk transfusions.  "Even as society expends great resources on making the blood supply safer than ever," says the magazine Transfusion, "we believe patients will still try to avoid allogeneic [donor] transfustions simply because the blood supply can never be completely safe."

Not surprisingly, many doctors are becoming wary of administering blood.  "Blood transfusions are basically no good, and we are very aggressive in avoiding  them for everybody," says DR. Alex Zapolanski, of San Francisco, California. 

The general publica too is becoming aware of the dangers of transfusions.  Indeed, a 1996 poll revealed that 89 percent of Canadians would prefer and alternate donated blood.  "Not all patients will refuse homologous transfusions as do Jehovah's Witnesses," states the Journal of Vascular Surgery.  "Nonetheless, the risks of disease  transmission and immuomodulation offer clear evidence that we must find alternatives  for all our patients.

Next time: The Growing Demand for Bloodless Medicine and Surgery

From the jw.org publications