Word: blood
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...When arteries to the penis have become constricted, surgery can sometimes restore blood flow. In one operation, called an endarterectomy, the blood vessel is opened and scraped clean. Doctors also bypass blockages by grafting sections of an abdominal artery around narrowed branches of the iliac artery that lead to the penis. This operation is similar to the one done on clogged coronary arteries, but does not have as high a success rate. Vascular surgeon Ralph DePalma of Washington thinks that vessels to the penis are more fragile because they are subjected to sudden surges in blood pressure...
...third technique being used to clear blood vessels is balloon angioplasty, in which a tiny collapsed balloon is threaded into a blocked passage and inflated. Atherosclerotic plaque is crushed against the artery walls, widening the blood pathway. Yet another delicate operation entails tying off penile veins that fail to close during sexual arousal, thus allowing blood to leak away from the penis and inhibiting an erection. Vascular operations carry steep price tags...
Ever since it became clear that AIDS and other infections could be transmitted through blood transfusions, the public has regarded receiving blood as risky. Even though blood is now screened more thoroughly than ever, scientists too are concerned about the vulnerability of the nation's blood supply, and this has led to a search for ways to circumvent the donor system. One approach is synthetic hemoglobin, the oxygen-carrying component of red blood cells; another is a drug to increase the production of red cells. A third is increasingly being used in elective surgery: autologous transfusion, in which patients...
...hemoglobin substitute is still some years away, and synthetic red- cell expanders are only in the test stages. There are also drawbacks to laying in a private stock of blood for a transfusion that may never be necessary. Three pints are typically requested for surgery, and drawing, processing and storing them can be expensive -- about $200 a pint per year. The donor must also pay the cost of transporting the blood to where it is needed -- an especially difficult task if the patient is involved in an automobile accident miles from his blood bank...
...overcome such drawbacks, doctors at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago have developed a technique that promises to get safe blood quickly to a patient. It is a form of autologous transfusion but with an important difference. Most hospitals try to reclaim part of the blood lost by a patient during surgery. When faced with gaping wounds that ooze large quantities of blood into body cavities -- as in open-heart or orthopedic surgery -- surgeons can reclaim half of it with suction devices, cleanse it in purifying machines and send it back into the patient. The rest is lost because it either...