Will a person be able to produce enough RBCs if his legs (Femur) are surgically removed ? What all be the consequences?
Will a person be able to produce enough RBCs if his legs (Femur) are surgically removed ? What all be the consequences?
Main component of blood would be red blood cells (RBC's) (besides you know, water). The amount of RBC production is determined by a lot of things but one of the main ones is oxygenation and removal of carbon dioxide from the body. If you need more oxygen, you produce more RBC's. It's one of the ways people adapt to higher altitudes and actually helps compensate for reduced oxygenation in smokers too.
You lose a limb and you lose a whole lot of cells that take up oxygen and release carbon dioxide. Therefore your need for RBC's is diminished. Another way of thinking about it is that when you lose that arm, you also lose all the blood that was in that arm. The rest of your body, with that arm removed is still in balance in terms of oxygenation so it wouldn't see a need to change the amount of RBC's in the body and would keep things as they are. The body doesn't really sense total volumes much. It's not going around saying "this body needs 5L of blood". All the parameters are concentration gradients, blood pressure, etc. If it made the same amount of blood as it did before, those parameters would be out of wack.
Your body adjusts the amount of RBC's you need as you grow up and change body size. I would think it'd do the same for amputees.
Main component of blood would be red blood cells (RBC's) (besides you know, water). The amount of RBC production is determined by a lot of things but one of the main ones is oxygenation and removal of carbon dioxide from the body. If you need more oxygen, you produce more RBC's. It's one of the ways people adapt to higher altitudes and actually helps compensate for reduced oxygenation in smokers too.
You lose a limb and you lose a whole lot of cells that take up oxygen and release carbon dioxide. Therefore your need for RBC's is diminished. Another way of thinking about it is that when you lose that arm, you also lose all the blood that was in that arm. The rest of your body, with that arm removed is still in balance in terms of oxygenation so it wouldn't see a need to change the amount of RBC's in the body and would keep things as they are. The body doesn't really sense total volumes much. It's not going around saying "this body needs 5L of blood". All the parameters are concentration gradients, blood pressure, etc. If it made the same amount of blood as it did before, those parameters would be out of wack.
Your body adjusts the amount of RBC's you need as you grow up and change body size. I would think it'd do the same for amputees.
