Step 2: The components of blood

To better understand the issues surrounding bloodless medicine, it's important to have a basic understanding of blood. In a given sample of your blood, more than half of the sample is made up of a watery substance called plasma, which contains proteins, immune cells, clotting factors, and various salts.

About half of the sample is made up of red blood cells, which contain oxygen-carrying hemoglobin. Less than 1% of the sample is made up of white blood cells (infection-fighting cells) and platelets (sticky little cell fragments that are involved in helping the blood clot). To learn more about how these blood products are used during surgery, click here.

Watch an animation to learn more about red blood cells. Need Shockwave?

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