Free Republic

A team of clinical trial specialists and consumer advocates has concluded that blood substitutes increase death rates by 30% and nearly triple the risk of heart attacks. Not everyone buys the findings, however, and clinical trials in the field continue. Donated blood has a short shelf life, and the supply is often tight. For decades, researchers have tried to make blood from scratch. Although the products differ, all contain hemoglobin molecules that help deliver oxygen to the body's tissues. A number of products have been tested in trauma patients and various surgical settings, although none has yet been approved for...

Scientist at Work | John Holcomb SAN ANTONIO — Since the war in Iraq began, Col. John Holcomb has been working to change the way the military takes care of its wounded. Along the way he has suffered a few dings himself. A tall medical doctor with a Southern lilt and close-cropped gray hair, Colonel Holcomb, 48, has spent his entire 27-year career in the Army, earning a reputation as one of the military’s top trauma surgeons. Since 2001, he has headed the Army’s Institute of Surgical Research, based on the campus of the Brooke Army Medical Center here. Under...

Just when Northfield Laboratories Inc. is on the verge of finding out whether its experimental blood substitute works well enough to submit to the Food and Drug Administration for possible approval, the regulatory climate appears to have become much tougher. Last week Northfield's primary rival in the race to get a blood substitute to market was rebuffed by advisers to the FDA, who decided against endorsing a controversial clinical trial of Biopure Corp.'s Hemopure blood substitute. The two companies are racing to develop a potentially lucrative product that can save lives in trauma situations by carrying oxygen through the body--an...

Emergency Patients Unwittingly Get Artificial Blood Paramedics in five U.S. cities have started infusing experimental artificial blood into victims of car crashes, shootings and other life-threatening emergencies without first getting their consent, as most research projects require. Ambulances and medical helicopters racing to bring hemorrhaging patients to more than a dozen other hospitals around the country, including possibly two in Virginia, will eventually join the test of the synthetic oxygen-carrying liquid, called PolyHeme. Supporters say the study is the only means to prove that the pouches of red fluid offer one of the longest-sought tools in medicine -- a way...