| ironjustice@aol.com 2005-09-24, 2:11 pm |
| J Card Fail. 2005 May;11(4):247-52. Related Articles, Links
Bloodletting as a cure for dropsy: heart failure down the ages.
Ventura HO, Mehra MR.
Cardiomyopathy and Heart Transplantation Center, Ochsner Clinic
Foundation, 1514 Jefferson Highway, New Orleans, LA 70121, USA.
BACKGROUND: Dropsy was a term used to describe generalized swelling and
was synonymous with heart failure. Its treatment options were scanty
and were aimed to cause "emptying of the system" or to relieve fluid
retention. These remedies were rudimentary, erratic in action, and
associated with inconvenient side effects. METHODS AND RESULTS:
Bloodletting, either by venesection or by leeches, was a popular way to
alleviate symptoms from dropsy. Although bloodletting, purgatives,
cauterization, and Southey tubes were drastic, their use demonstrated
that physicians were not powerless to help people with severe heart
failure. Several centuries of intensive investigations in different
areas of heart failure ended with the development of new therapeutic
strategies that made bloodletting obsolete. CONCLUSION: In an era when
adequate treatment of heart failure has become a reality, it is
appropriate to acknowledge those who paved the way to such great
progress.
PMID: 15880332 [PubMed - in process]
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