PHLEB_Unit 1

• Phlebotomy - cut a vein or make an incision into a vein

  • one of the oldest medical procedures known to man
• phleb/o - vein

  -tomy - to cut or make an incision
• four body fluids (humors) - represent four elements of the universe

  • blood
  • phlegm
  • yellow bile
  • black bile
• Hippocrates believed that diseases are caused by an excess of any of these body fluids and that removal of the excess would cause the body to return to its healthy state.
• bloodletting (removal of blood) - only means to cure diseases and maintain the body in a state of well-being
• Bloodletting techniques:

  1. Suction cup devices with lancets used to form an incision
  2. Application of blood-sucking worms called "leeches" to an incision
  3. Barber surgery in which blood from an incision produced by barber's razor was collected in a bleeding bowl
• Phelbotomy Then:

  • Performed by a cut into a vein with a sharp instrument to drain blood
  • Performed by “barber-surgeons” or trained persons
  • Aseptic practices were not known, so the lancet was reused for several patients
• Phlebotomy Now:

  • Performed using a variety of sterile needle and lancets
  • Performed by trained phlebotomist
  • Standards of practice set by the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI)
• A phlebotomist is a trained medical personnel to collect blood samples for laboratory analysis.