Phlebotomy is a procedure that has been done for a long time, even before the advent of modern medicine. A description of phlebotomy would be that it is the procedure of accessing blood in a vein either surgically or using a needle, in order to obtain a required volume of blood from a patient. In ancient times, blood was thought to be one of the ‘humors’ that caused disease, so early physicians thought that this procedure, also known as bloodletting, would ease illnesses. It, however, normally weakened patients and caused them to face further complications more often than to heal them. In modern context, phlebotomy is being used as a therapeutic agent in many clinical illnesses.
Common applications nowadays
One of the most common applications of phlebotomy (which fails to cross many people’s minds when the procedure is mentioned) is in blood transfusion. In order to obtain blood for a transfusion, a needle has to be inserted in the donor’s vein in the arm and this is used to extract the blood. Since the volume of blood that is usually obtained from a donor is usually large (usually half a liter), a needle that has a wide bore is used. Due to the fact that a significant volume of blood is drawn during the phlebotomy, the donors are usually advised to lie down for a while after the procedure and take some energy drinks to regain composure.
Another reason why one would want to obtain blood through phlebotomy is for diagnostic purposes. For a large number of diseases, blood plays a major role in diagnostics, and its value as a tissue for diagnosis cannot be overemphasized. This is because many disease processes manifest in blood. Normally, for such purposes only a small amount of blood is needed (in the range of 5-10ml). Yet another reason to perform a phlebotomy is for therapeutic purposes. Some disease states result in the accumulation of large quantities of iron or red blood cells, and usually one of the best ways to preserve homeostasis is by removal of these elements. Since they are found in blood, this is done through phlebotomy.
The volume of blood that is removed from the body during therapeutic phlebotomy is more than that which is removed during blood donation or removal of blood for diagnostic purposes. Some of the conditions which require phlebotomy as a therapeutic course include hemochromatosis (iron overload in the body) and polycythemia (overproduction of red blood cells). Such conditions cause a variety of symptoms and phlebotomy is usually one of the best courses of treatment for them.
No related posts.