Talk:Hemoglobin based oxygen carriers

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

From Wikipedia "In general, hemoglobin-based oxygen carriers have been shown to reduce or eliminate the need for allogeneic blood transfusions in patients undergoing orthopaedic surgery, elective abdominal surgery, and coronary artery bypass graft surgery. Trauma victims can benefit from a rapidly available universal oxygen-carrying volume expander that does not require cross matching. HOBCs may also serve as a bridge to transfusion in patients for whom blood is temporarily difficult to find. They may also serve as a bridge in the temporary support of a patient who will not accept blood and who has a reasonable chance of recovering an adequate haemoglobin/ hematocrit within a few days."

This article doesn't give any space to the controversial and dangerous side effects of HBOC's. There is a much more interesting and controversial history here. This looks like it was written by someone associated with one of the products. As it stands, this article is very misleading to potential investors, patients and doctors. Northfield Laboratories stock dropped from $17 to $4 last month on news that in "preliminary results forty-six patients, or 13.2% of those given PolyHeme, died, compared with 35 patients, or 9.6%, who died after getting standard therapy" (Wall Street Journal reference below). Thomas Burton of the WSJ has done a series of articles on clinical trials in trauma patients given without consent in the past year and on past trials with negative results to patients that weren't reported. This was also subject of many articles on the web as well as a 20/20 report. Some of this history and these sources should be included. In article this week in WSJ:

"For the FDA to approve Northfield's blood substitute, the agency would have to look past a series of trial results -- including recent preliminary data from a major study of the Evanston, Ill., company's PolyHeme product and others that haven't been previously reported -- in which blood substitutes were linked to higher death and adverse-event rates than standard therapy in treating patients in different medical settings. Northfield, which declined to comment, has said it plans to seek FDA approval this year."

"Many experts in the field have serious reservations about treating patients with this class of blood substitutes, known as hemoglobin-based oxygen carriers. One doubter is William D. Hoffman, chief of cardiac-surgery critical care at Massachusetts General Hospital and former medical director of Biopure Corp. in Cambridge, Massachusetts, maker of a product similar to Northfield's. He said the "totality of the data" on this class of products is that "so much harm has been shown, without benefit, that the field should be stopped."

Blood Substitutes Face Long Odds History, Scientific Concern Hamstring Sector; Northfield's High Hopes By THOMAS M. BURTON February 13, 2007

69.224.17.217 15:08, 17 February 2007 (UTC)

There are several contributing factors for the research - See Military Use for one. Units in the field require an HBOC that has a long shelf-life and that can be generally applied without regard to blood type, etc.

Hence, the page has value. I would vote for a re-organization that is less academic in flavor and that stresses the pros and cons. jmswtlk 23:24, 21 February 2007 (UTC)