Blood transfusion in World War I: the roles of Lawrence Bruce Robertson and Oswald Hope Robertson in the "most important medical advance of the war".

Full Abstract

The demonstration and acceptance of the life-saving potential of blood transfusion in the resuscitation of combat casualties came in two parts. First, Canadian surgeon Major Lawrence Bruce Robertson showed that direct transfusion of uncrossmatched blood from the veins of a donor to a patient could save the lives of many moribund casualties, even if a few died of acute hemolytic reactions. Second, US Army Captain Oswald Hope Robertson showed that stored, syphilis-tested, universal donor whole blood could be given quickly and safely in forward medical units. With these demonstrations, the Royal Army Medical Corps adopted transfusion and declared it the most important medical advance of the war.

Author information

Author/s: Stansbury, Lynn G (LG); Hess, John R (JR);

Affiliation: Department of Anesthesiology, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Biography; Historical Article; Journal Article

Journal: Transfusion medicine reviews (Transfus Med Rev), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2009-Jul; vol 23 (issue 3) : pp 232-6

Dates: Created 2009/06/22; Completed 2009/08/25;

PMID: 19539877, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 8/25/2009, IMS Date: )

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

External Links for this article
(including full text providers, if available):

Click Electronic Full-text Provider Links to see options for finding the electronic full text links to this article. Note there may be a subscription or fee required for access to the full text. See our FAQ for information on finding FREE full text articles.

This article may also be located in paper journal collections available in many libraries. Use the Journal and Publication Information above to find the full article.