History of Phlebotomy

The word phlebotomy isn’t a common name actually. Only few people had actually known what the word implies. But to simplify the word, it is a process of drawing blood from a human. Other terms may include venisection, venipuncture and bloodletting. This process isn’t done all the time but is a requirement for every person who undergoes a checkup, an operation or even for a person wanting to donate a blood. It is actually a priority that a person should undergo blood sampling before a doctor does anything – for safety purposes. You don’t want to hear horror stories about how an operation goes wrong nor how a doctor diagnoses a wrong health condition due to negligence on their part, do you? These can be quite frustrating on your part and unprofessional on your doctor’s part. If you are wondering when and how does phlebotomy starts, well, a good information below might fill you in.

This process of drawing blood was started by the Greeks – around Hippocrates time but the man behind it was not given credit actually – the inventor of bloodletting was unknown and wasn’t discovered up to now. This was the start of the Greek’s health history as many physicians from Greece decided to expand bloodletting. Some of them even claimed that in order for a person to restore its health back, he should undergo bloodletting. They get the idea from a woman’s natural monthly menstruation cycle and therefore associated the bleeding as a healthy activity for the body. Hippocrates and other Greek physician believed that bloodletting is a process that can allow a person to released harmful toxins out from their body thus allowing them to live a healthier life.

During mid 1800s, the use of bloodletting becomes more rampant because it was said that a person can reduce the infection of a certain injured/affected area of his body when they drained their blood because in doing so, they are clearing the area out. Up to now, bloodletting or simply phlebotomy is a process done my most physicians all the time all over the world.