A few centuries ago, bleeding a patient was a treatment for a wide variety of ailments, real, imaginary, and misunderstood. In contemporary medical practice, removal of blood from a patient, called _______________________, is infrequently used. However, the blood disease _________ is still commonly treated by periodic bloodletting.

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Hemochromatosis is a genetically inherited disorder in which excessive amounts of iron accumulate in body tissues, causing organs like the heart, liver, pancreas, and testes to malfunction. It is treated with periodic removal of blood, to reduce body iron stores. Fibromyalgia is a poorly understood condition in which a person suffers with unexplained aches and pains. It is the sort of illness which in the distant past might have been inappropriately treated with phlebotomy. von Willebrand's disease is a relatively common inherited coagulopathy caused by an abnormality of the surface of platelets. Hemosiderosis is a condition marked by the deposition in the liver and spleen of hemosiderin, an iron-containing pigment.

A Few Centuries Ago, Bleeding a Patient Was a Treatment