Abstract

GONZALEZ GARCIA, O. First World War: the dawn of blood transfusions. Sanid. Mil. [online]. 2019, vol.75, n.1, pp.52-62. ISSN 1887-8571.  https://dx.doi.org/10.4321/s1887-85712019000100009.

In 1914, hell broke out in Europe and spread to much of the world. The destructive capacity of man against man reached unsuspected levels. Hundreds of thousands of casualties needed urgent health care in each campaign. This enormous demand meant that in just five years, medicine would advance what in another situation would have needed many decades. Surgical treatment of wounds, orthopedic treatment, plastic surgery, radiology and anesthesia were the fields where more progress was made. However, probably one of the major milestones reached in this period of time, and certainly one of the most transcendent, was the development of blood transfusion. In a few years it went from being a technique of “strange scientists” to become essential. Here we describe the path to achievement and its main characters.

Keywords : Blood Transfusion; First World War; Military Medicine; Mass Casualty Incidents; Emergency Medicine.

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