Before modern surgical developments, there was a very real
threat that a patient would bleed to death before treatment, or
during the operation. cauterization (fusing a wound closed with extreme heat)
was successful but limited - it was destructive, painful and in the long term had
very poor outcomes. Ligatures, or material used to tie off severed blood vessels,
are believed to have originated with Ambroise Pare (sometimes spelled "Ambrose"[5])
during the 16th century, but were highly dangerous until infection risk was brought
under control - at the time of its discovery, the concept of infection did not exist.
Finally, early 20th century research into blood groups allowed the first effective blood
transfusions.
