Bloodletting: What is it and how is it Used in the Modern-Day World?

Around 3000 years ago, Egyptian physicians believed that bloodletting, a practice that removed “infected” blood from ill patients, would treat different medical conditions. It was first popular in Egypt but had spread to the Middle East, then Europe and Asia. This belief had first been idealized by Hippocrates, a Greek physician, who believed that disease could be understood through the four different humors and that being ill had meant an imbalance of the humors. Each humor represented a different issue in the body and a different condition. As a result, bloodletting was performed as a method to treat many different conditions. However, there are many different methods to perform bloodletting. 

The most popular methods of bloodletting were the generalized version through venesection and arteriotomy and the more localized version of using leeches and cupping. Venesection was the most common procedure used and consisted of making a cut at a patient’s vein on their elbow and removing the “infected” blood from there. On the other hand, arteriotomy was the same procedure, but the cut was made at an artery instead of a vein. Another method that people had commonly used back then was using leeches and cupping. Cupping was the method that physicians had used after scraping the skin with a box with small knives in it. In addition, it was the process of using glass “cups” to cup the skin through the usage of heat. The third method that people had used in bloodletting was leeches. Historical physicians had used medicinal leeches as a way to remove affected blood from an ill patient as a way to treat their conditions. Physicians would place leeches on specific body parts in order to treat certain medical conditions. 

Although bloodletting was commonly used historically, it was actually proven to be ineffective for treating different medical conditions. In addition, many people had died from bloodletting and the way that their medical conditions were left untreated and had weakened their bodies from the loss of blood from bloodletting. It is also believed that George Washington had died from bloodletting, as he had died several days after the withdrawal of blood. Moreover, Dr. Pierre Louis from Paris (1787-1872) had performed an experiment where he had studied the effectiveness of bloodletting through the comparison of the records of pneumonia patients that had gone through bloodletting and the records of other patients that hadn’t. Through this experiment, he had discovered that bloodletting was actually ineffective in treating medical conditions. Hence, bloodletting had slowly begun to be recognized as an ineffective and risky practice to treat different medical conditions. 

In the modern world, bloodletting is known as a practice that is very unique as it was known as the treatment for every medical condition back then. However, there are still several tribal places in some countries that still use the practice, such as tribal areas in Algeria and other countries. Today, physicians use phlebotomy, cupping, and leeches as other forms of medicine to treat medical conditions. Physicians today use phlebotomy to check for irregularities or abnormalities in the human body, which is very similar to bloodletting but is much more healthy and risk-free. Besides phlebotomy, modern-day physicians also use cupping and leeches as forms of therapy to treat different medical conditions like mental illnesses, cardiovascular diseases, etc. 

Bloodletting was a practice that was popularized around 3000 years ago and was believed to be the treatment for many different medical conditions, like fever and sore throat. Bloodletting had first come from Egypt but had spread to Europe and Asia. In Greece, a physician named Hippocrates had idealized the idea that humans had four humors and each of them was connected to a medical condition. Unfortunately, as time passed, historical doctors had discovered through experiments that bloodletting was ineffective and very risky, as they had weakened and had even killed patients due to the high loss of blood. Thus, the practice of bloodletting had begun to be abandoned but there are still some countries who use it and other practices similar to bloodletting today. For instance, phlebotomy, cupping, and leech therapy. Therefore, this is what bloodletting is and how it is used in modern-day medicine today. 

Written by Connie Ma at Incisionary

APA References

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