AUTOHEMOTHERAPY AND DIFFICULT WOUNDS: Tissue regeneration: an ancient cure is the new promise

The autohemotherapy discussed in this volume consists of drawing blood from a vein (between 5 and 20 cc) from the patient and, immediately afterwards, administering it intramuscularly as it is, without any added substance. This is an ancient therapeutic practice, which found an entry in the Italian Encyclopedia as early as 1930, where it is defined as "Method of treatment that finds application in many morbid states [...]”.I have been using this type of autohemotherapy for over 20 years for the treatment of herpetic virosis; in May 2022, I proposed it to an 88-year-old diabetic woman with trophic and necrotic lesions of the lower limbs. What happened on one of the lesions only seven days after the first injection left patient and family astonished, and prompted me to continue the administrations.The subsequent favorable course of the various wounds is documented photographically in the text. In particular, the improvement of the necrotic lesion of the first toe of the right foot - for which beyond amputation no other therapeutic prospect seemed possible - led me to think that autohemotherapy promoted tissue regeneration through improved microcirculation, which is known to be severely impaired in diabetics. Evidence to support this idea I later observed in the results obtained on a torpid sore that was like an open window to the subcutaneous. Within 24 hours after the first injection, many red pinpricks (small arterial blood vessels) appeared on the yellowish-gray bottom of the wound and the healing process began.How can autohemotherapy bring about these results?In 1940, a Brazilian surgeon, Dr. Jessé Teixeira, discovered that autohemotherapy increases the number of monocytes, i.e., macrophage precursors; today, because of its many actions including on capillary circulation, macrophage is considered a key cell not only for the immune system but also for tissue regeneration.It is the activation of the monocyte-macrophage system that can explain the application in many morbid states of autohemotherapy, useful in all situations the said system plays an important role. In the reparative processes of wounds and pressure sores, for example, but also when there is a need to improve the patient's immune efficiency, or even when one is in the presence of diseases that impair microcirculation (diabetes, just to mention the best known).A technically simple treatment, practicing it I have never observed any adverse effects other than an infrequent, transient soreness at the injection site. Read more