Highlights to Transfusion Medicine History 1900 to 1947

• 1900
  Karl Lansteiner, an Austrian physician, discovers the first three human blood groups, A, B, and O. The fourth, AB, is added by his colleagues A. Decastello and A. Sturle in 1902. Landsteiner received the Nobel Prize for Medicine for this discovery in 1930.
  
  
• 1907
  Hektoen suggests that the safety of transfusion might be improved by cross matching blood between donors and patients to exclude incompatible mixtures. Reuben Ottenberg performs the first blood transfusion using blood typing and cross matching in New York. Ottenberg also observed the Mendelian inheritance of blood groups and recognized the "universal" utility of group O donors.
  
  
• 1908
  French surgeon Alexis Carrel devises a way to prevent clotting by sewing the vein of the recipient directly to the artery of the donor. This vein-to-vein or direct method, known as anastomosis, is practiced by a number of physicians, among them J.B. Murphy in Chicago and George Crile in Cleveland. The procedure, however, proves unfeasible for blood transfusions, but paves the way for successful organ transplantation, for which Carrel received the Nobel Prize in 1912.
  
  
• 1908
  Moreschi describes the antiglobulin reaction.
  
  
• 1912
  Roger Lee, a visiting physician at the Massachusetts General Hospital, along with Paul Dudley White, develops the Lee-White clotting time. Adding another important discovery to the growing body of knowledge of transfusion medicine, Lee demonstrates that it is safe to give group O blood to patients of any blood group, and that blood from all groups can be given to group AB patients. The terms "universal donor" and "universal recipient" are coined.
  
  
• 1914
  Long-term anticoagulants, among them sodium citrate, are developed, allowing longer preservation of blood.
  
  
• 1915
  At Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York, Richard Lewisohn uses sodium citrate as an anticoagulant to transform the transfusion procedure from direct to indirect. In addition, R. Weil demonstrates the feasibility of refrigerated storage of such anticoagulated blood. Although this is a great advance in transfusion medicine, it takes 10 years for sodium citrate use to be accepted.
  
  
• 1916
  Francis Rouse and J.R. Turner introduce a citrate-glucose solution that permits storage of blood for several days after collection. Allowing for blood to be stored in containers for later transfusion aids the transition from the vein-to-vein method to direct transfusion. This discovery also allows for the establishment of the first blood depot by the British during World War I. Oswald Robertson is credited as the creator of the blood depots.
  
  
• 1927-1947
  The MNS and P systems are discovered.
  
  

Look to upcoming issues of Bloodlines for highlights in transfusion medicine from 1932 to the present.

Information taken from the web site of American Association of Blood Banks.