Rh Haemolytic Disease of the Newborn, 1960-1961.

Before 1941, erythroblastosis foetalis was treated at Birmingham Maternity Hospital by repeated intramuscular injections of fresh blood (Braid, 1939). During the next decade infants with Rh haemolytic disease of the newborn were given repeated intravenous transfusions of Rh negative blood. The exchange transfusion was not introduced until 1950. The first three years' experience (1950-53) with this new technique was reviewed by Davies, Gerrard, Hatchuel and Howarth in 1953. Two years' experience of Rh haemolytic disease at the same hospital a decade later forms the subject of this paper.