TREATMENT OF TWO PATIENTS WITH HEPATO-RENAL SYNDROME AND ACUTE RENAL FAILURE BY EXSANGUINOTRANSFUSION*

Excerpt

After exsanguinotransfusion had been tried and abandoned during the 17th century it was not used again until recently, when total replacement of blood was reintroduced by American clinicians for the treatment of fetal erythroblastosis. Bessis¹ in 1947 used exsanguinotransfusions in adults for the treatment of leukemia and later recommended the same method for the treatment of uremic patients, especially in cases of uremia due to acute anuria.² The quantities of dialyzable substances (urea, non-protein-nitrogen, etc.) removed during an exsanguinotransfusion are considerably smaller than those removed by the artificial kidney or with peritoneal irrigation.³ Bessis himself reports that one exsanguinotransfusion usually