AIDS

What Healthcare Professionals are Saying about Bloodless Surgery

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While some of the basic ideas and concepts constituting what is known today as bloodless medicine have been around for centuries, the idea of a set of medical and surgical techniques aimed specifically at eliminating the necessity of blood transfusions has only been around since the 1960s. The idea was spurred mainly by Jehovah’s Witnesses, who became outspoken about their opposition to blood transfusions in the beginning of the 20th century.

Physicians were initially skeptical about performing complex surgeries and operations without using blood transfusions. However, after decades of campaigning and even federal court cases, Witnesses won the right to be treated without blood transfusions.

The early practitioners of bloodless medicine worked almost exclusively with Jehovah’s Witnesses to perform bloodless surgery. In many cases, doctors, nurses and healthcare professionals noticed the results from bloodless operations were actually better than similar operations where a transfusion had been performed. Benefits included quicker recovery times and lower costs. Eventually, these physicians began publishing their results, noting the advantages to these bloodless procedures over traditional blood transfusions. They also explained these benefits to other physicians and encouraged them to adopt the practices with non-Witness patients.

After surgeons in New Orleans and Los Angeles gained attention for performing bloodless open heart surgeries (or “bloodless hearts”), the popularity of bloodless surgery techniques with physicians began to spread around the world. By the late 1970s, bloodless medicine was available at healthcare systems in the U.S., Canada, Europe and India.

Not long thereafter, the public began to take notice as well. Concerns about the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) led to people beginning to question where the source of donated blood used in transfusions was coming from. Fear over contracting AIDS through contaminated donor blood led to large numbers of non-Witness patients requesting bloodless surgeries.

Physicians have generally welcomed the increased demand for bloodless surgery in the modern medical climate. Bloodless surgeries have a number of specific advantages to both the patient and surgeon, as well as benefits to the hospital systems offering bloodless surgery. Because more than 50% of surgeries in the U.S. are pre-planned or elective surgeries, many doctors are actually encouraging their patients to consider blood transfusion alternatives.

Why do doctors and healthcare professionals like bloodless surgery methods? There are a number of specific reasons why a particular doctor or healthcare system might choose to offer bloodless medicine program. However, there are two huge advantages that benefit the doctor, the patient and the healthcare system.

1.) Bloodless Surgeries have fewer complications –

Fewer complications mean fewer post-surgery procedures and a quicker recovery time. This is obviously good for patients, but it is good for physicians as well. It frees up more of their time and lessens the likelihood that they could lose a patient in surgery.

Global Health Progress Epitomizes Clinton, Gates Call for Efficiency Savings

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During a recent international conference in Vienna for 20,000 AIDS scientists, health workers and activists, former U.S. President Bill Clinton and Microsoft founder Bill Gates urged AIDS activists to try to generate the most value possible out of funds set aside for HIV/AIDS prevention services and treatments, including securing access to drugs. Reuters Health and Science Correspondent Kate Kelland highlighted the leaders remarks in a recent article:

“The world is awash in troubles. It is easy to rail at a government and say … give us more money. But we also have to change the way we do what we do,” Clinton told the conference. “If we’re going to make this case, they (donor governments) have to believe that we are doing our job faster, better and cheaper. Then we have the moral standing to go ask people to give us more money.”

Gates philanthropic organization, the Gates Foundation, spends a large portion of its $34 billion fund on fighting AIDS; he said efficiency was vital to be able to scale up access to AIDS drugs for the 15 million people who need them. “We can’t keep spending AIDS resources in exactly the same way we do today,” he said. “As we … advocate for more funding, we also need to make sure we’re getting the most benefit from each dollar of AIDS funding and every ounce of effort.”

In keeping with this message, Global Health Progress recent 3rd Annual African Health Delegation let African officials share experiences, expertise and insights about how they efficiently employ available resources when battling diseases in Africa. These conferences are just one way GHP helps advocacy groups meet Clinton and Gates plea to employ “efficiency saving” tactics when delivering treatments and securing access to drugs for countries “hardest hit and at highest risk” by HIV/AIDs and other diseases.

For example, during GHPs 3rd Annual African Health Delegation, Dr. Robert Einterz, Associate Dean of the Indiana University School of Medicine, described the 20-year-old Academic Model Providing Access to Healthcare (AMPATH) partnership in Kenya between the Schools of Medicine at Indiana University and Moi University. What started as a joint effort to develop leaders in health care for both the US and Kenya has grown to provide treatment and prevention for HIV/AIDS, testing for HIV and tuberculosis, access to drugs, distribution of bed nets to prevent malaria, food and income security programs and care for orphans and vulnerable children.

Also at the Delegation, Mr. Kris Natarajan, Director, Global Partnerships at Merck, outlined a number of partnerships the company has in Africa, including the African Comprehensive HIV/AIDS Partnerships (ACHAPS), which is a collaboration between Merck, the Government of Botswana and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

GHP continues to advocate for efficient and effective tactics for HIV/AIDs prevention and treatments through supporting successful public and private partnerships and through determining new ways to secure additional resources, including reliable access to drugs.