Hippocrates Vindicated

Citing no less an authority than Hippocrates, many modern medical textbooks recommend the application of cold to control bleeding. Most doctors, however, find such advice unimpressive. One researcher has observed that bleeding is encouraged, not inhibited, if the ear lobe is chilled. Others have shown that the immersion of a cut finger in cold water delays clotting. Many have questioned whether the father of medicine really knew what he was talking about.

Now it turns out that Hippocrates was right after all. Proof of his accuracy comes from three Mayo Clinic researchers, Drs. Anton Sutor, E.J. Walter Bowie and Charles Owens Jr., who used hemophiliac volunteers to determine the effects of cold on bleeding. Their experiments were simple. Making small (1 mm.-long by 1 mm.-deep) wounds in their subjects' arms, they tried chilling first the wound itself, then the wound and the surrounding area, and finally the surrounding area alone. Each time they collected the blood in special plastic cubes and analyzed it to determine clotting time.

The results of their experiments, as reported in the British medical publication the Lancet, are significant. When cold water (62DEG F.) was passed over the bleeding site, the flow was heavier and lasted longer. The result was similar when both the wound and the surrounding area were chilled by metal plates. But bleeding stopped quickly when the wound itself was left at room temperature and the area surrounding it was chilled.

The findings constitute a complete vindication for Hippocrates. They also help correct a misinterpretation of his teachings. Hippocrates, notes the Mayo Clinic team, never recommended that cold be applied directly to a wound; he has been misquoted by those who claim that he did. As Hippocrates' 23rd Aphorism, written around 415 B.C., clearly states: "Cold should be used in the following cases: when there is, or is likely to be, hemorrhage, but it should be applied not to the parts whence blood flows, but around them."

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