Cadaveric blood

Cadaveric blood transfusion

In 1929, professor Shamov of Kharkov, USSR, reported the experimental use of cadaveric blood and demonstrated the absence of toxicity. Russian surgeon Sergei Yudin pioneered the transfusion of cadaveric blood and performed this successfully for the first time on March 23, 1930. Yudin also reported his first seven clinical transfusions with cadaveric blood at the Fourth Congress of Ukrainian Surgeons at Kharkov in September 1930. With the discovery that cadaveric blood could be stored safely, time was provided for both serological tests and bacteriological examinations. Cadaveric blood was apparently never used widely, even in Russia. “From these studies, however have developed a variety of means and methods for the collection, preservation, and storage of blood for transfusion, all which may be grouped under the generic term of “the blood bank". Although cadaver blood transfusion did not catch on in the United States, Dr. Bernard Fantus modified the Soviet idea by preserving blood from healthy living persons. Drawing on earlier work involving preservatives and anticoagulants, Fantus added the element of refrigeration and in 1937 established the first “blood bank” in USA at Chicago's Cook County Hospital. ” (Robert A. Kilduffe and Michael DeBakey, 1942)