Medicine
The siameses
Autism and vaccines
Powder blood
HoxB4
The confidence's hormone
The medical right
The oath of Hippocrates
The eradication of diseases
The medical donations

Here a very interesting discovery : powder blood. In fact, it is acted rather of dehydrated haemoglobin. A lot of products are in competition, like Hemospan from the Californian laboratory Sangart, which keeps its process secret. This « blood » has many advantages, the first being the shelf life. Indeed, blood given can be preserved only 42 days (lifespan of the globules). This new product can be preserved years, without cold room.
Moreover, it is stripped of any specific marker. It can thus be injected to a patient of unspecified blood group, without checking. That makes it a formidable tool for the emergency perfusions. Lastly, it leads oxygen more quickly than normal blood. On the level of the production, it can also be produced starting from nonhuman blood (ox for example), which would allow a production on a large scale. Last advantage : it avoids risks of contamination.
However, it never will be able to replace true blood. Indeed, it ensures only the transfer of oxygen. However true blood transports also the nutrients, the carbon dioxide... In short, this substitute is a profit in the event of emergency but must be used on a short term.

Clinical trials of Hemospan took place in October 2003 with eight patients of the Karolinska hospital (Stockholm) and the results were positive, the substitute functioned. However, researchers still had to study its possible effects and its risks on the long term. A study published on the website of the Journal of the American Medical Association and leaded by the National Institutes for Health brings a first answer, barely bad. Five substitutes have been tested on 3711 patients. In the tested groups, 164 patients are dead, 59 of them by heart attack, whereas in the groups that received classical drips, 123 deaths happen, 16 of them by heart attack. The authors of the study estimate that the tested substitutes increase of 30 % the lethal risk.
However, a product has been authorized on american market, and an other one could be. What will next studies say ?