Autohemotherapy

Early use in European medicine

A systematic review of intramuscular autologous blood therapy states that the method has been used in European medicine since the end of the nineteenth century. The same review says it was gradually discarded from general medical use from the 1950s onward, while complementary medicine kept it for infections and skin conditions such as urticaria and atopic dermatitis. It adds that in Japan, intramuscular autologous blood or serum injections have traditionally been used for chronic urticaria.

The review does not name individual early practitioners or give specific dates for them, and no other verified source reviewed for this page supplies a reliable origin story for the plain-blood form. Claims about earlier or more precise origins are therefore not made here.

Ozone-based forms in the twentieth century

A narrative review of the history of ozone therapy, written from a naturopathic and integrative perspective, says that the physician Hans Wolff opened an ozone therapy training school in 1953 and introduced major and minor autohemotherapy techniques by 1961. It also says Wolff and Joachim Hansler, who is credited with a precise ozone generator in the late 1950s, helped found a German ozone therapy association in 1972.

These dates come from a single secondary source that presents ozone therapy favorably and does not document its own sources for each claim, so they are best read as the account given within that field rather than as independently confirmed history. The review also records periods of declining and renewed interest in ozone use in different countries.

Names and spellings

The word appears as autohemotherapy in American spelling and autohaemotherapy in British spelling, and the German term Eigenbluttherapie is used for the same family of practices. Published papers also use autologous whole blood therapy, autohemotransfusion, and phrases such as ozone-enriched transfusion of autologous blood, depending on the author and the form studied.

A randomized trial in fibromyalgia describes two forms by the terms major autohemotherapy and minor autohemotherapy and applied both within one treatment course. How those two terms are defined varies between clinics and publications, and the sources reviewed here do not give a single agreed definition.

Different practices under one name

The systematic review of intramuscular autologous blood therapy limited itself to untreated whole blood, with or without additives, and excluded oxygenated, ultraviolet-irradiated or heated blood, as well as serum and plasma. Additives in the included trials ranged from a diluted preparation labeled Formica rufa 6x to Traditional Chinese herbs given alongside the blood, so even plain autologous blood is not one uniform intervention.

Ozone forms are a separate subject, treated in other pages on ozone therapy. Results for one form should not be carried over to another, and none of the sources reviewed examined homeopathically prepared blood, so this page makes no statement about it.

What the term covers

In general terms, the practice involves taking a person's own venous blood and returning it by injection, most often into muscle in the plain form. The systematic review describes intramuscular injection of untreated whole blood as the original method used in complementary medicine. In ozone-based forms, practitioners expose the blood to an oxygen and ozone mixture before it is returned. This page gives no procedure details such as volumes, concentrations or schedules.

Who offers it

The systematic review notes that physicians need no special equipment and no training beyond medical school to give an intramuscular injection of the patient's own blood, and that its included trials were run in the United Kingdom, Turkey, Egypt, China and Germany, four of them in Germany. A critical review of ozone therapy says it is often offered in private clinical settings as an adjunct or alternative to established treatment.

No professional register, code of ethics or training standard specific to autohemotherapy was found among the sources reviewed, and nothing here should be read as describing a recognized qualification.

Uses described for plain blood

The systematic review lists the uses attributed to intramuscular autologous whole blood in complementary medicine: enhancing the immune system, skin complaints such as urticaria and atopic dermatitis, pain in tendons and joints, tissue repair, and wound healing, with infections also named. These are the uses practitioners and authors describe, not conclusions drawn from the trial evidence discussed below.

Uses studied for ozone-enriched forms

Published studies of ozone-based autohemotherapy have addressed fibromyalgia, symptoms that persist after COVID-19, herpes zoster pain, and chronic urticaria, and a systematic review has examined autohemotherapy in hepatitis B, hepatitis C and coronavirus infection. A critical review of ozone therapy cautions that it is promoted across many conditions and that some claims overstate the strength of the underlying evidence.

Plain autologous blood

The systematic review searched PubMed and the Cambase database in April and May 2017 and found eight prospective controlled trials of intramuscular whole blood. Three controlled trials in atopic dermatitis and urticaria reported beneficial effects. Five randomized trials, covering respiratory tract infections, urticaria and ankylosing spondylitis, found no efficacy. The trials were too varied to pool, and only four had more than 37 participants per group.

The authors concluded that there is some evidence for efficacy in urticaria and atopic eczema but that firm conclusions cannot be drawn, and they called for larger randomized trials and for work on how the therapy might act. A separate systematic review of eight articles on hepatitis B, hepatitis C and coronavirus infection reported good results, but the authors asked for more prospective comparative studies with consistent protocols, and its conclusions should be read with that limit in mind.

Ozone-enriched forms

A pilot randomized trial in 73 people with persistent symptoms after COVID-19 compared major ozone autohemotherapy plus conventional therapy with conventional therapy alone. A 50 percent symptom reduction was reached by 25 of 35 people (71 percent) in the ozone group and 17 of 38 (45 percent) in the comparison group. The authors called for further research. A double-blind placebo-controlled trial in 54 people with fibromyalgia found improvement in some questionnaire subscales and in sleep quality, but no difference between groups in the total fibromyalgia impact score.

A 2026 meta-analysis of 20 studies with 1,519 patients reported lower pain scores with ozone autohemotherapy for zoster-associated pain, with heterogeneity often above 50 percent and certainty rated very low to moderate. A 2026 meta-analysis of 20 trials with 1,461 participants found higher response rates when autohemotherapy was combined with other Traditional Chinese Medicine external treatments for chronic urticaria compared with Western medicine, but its authors cited unclear randomization and blinding and asked for more rigorous studies.

Limits of the evidence

A 2026 umbrella review of meta-analyses of randomized trials of ozone therapy across all routes included seven meta-analyses in four indications, none specific to autohemotherapy. It rated certainty as low or very low for all outcomes and concluded that routine clinical use was not justified pending adequately powered, blinded trials. Because it covers ozone therapy generally, its findings are context rather than direct evidence about drawn blood.

PubMed searches run on 11 October 2026 for autohemotherapy, autohaemotherapy and intramuscular autologous blood returned mostly small trials, case reports, case series and the reviews above. The sources reviewed do not include a large, independent, blinded trial of either form in a single condition, and none reported long-term follow-up in a way that supports firm conclusions.

Serious events reported with ozone-enriched forms

A forensic case report describes an unexpected death caused by gas embolism during oxygen-ozone therapy given by autohemotransfusion for psoriasis. An investigation of an outpatient clinic in Rome found a cluster of hepatitis C infections among 42 people exposed to ozone-enriched autologous blood treatment or intramuscular injection between January and June 2001: of 31 who took part, six had hepatitis C antibodies and virus RNA, a prevalence of 19.4 percent against an estimated 0.9 percent in the population.

The investigators could not identify the exact route of transmission, noted that one patient had known hepatitis C infection since 1986 and could have been the source, and judged that transmission probably occurred during one of the three busiest sessions. They concluded that standard precautions are needed in every healthcare setting. A critical review of ozone therapy cites both reports and notes that serious complications appear concentrated in blood-handling and systemic routes.

Adverse events summarized in a scoping review

A 2026 scoping review of adverse events with oxygen-ozone autohemotherapy found mainly case reports of rare but potentially serious events. Categories included hemolysis with renal failure at excessive ozone concentrations, high blood potassium in people with several coexisting conditions, heart attack and other ischemic events, cerebral gas embolism in people with a patent foramen ovale, autonomic reactions linked to rapid reinfusion, anaphylactic reactions linked to equipment materials, and infections after breaches of protocol.

The authors state that the overall frequency of serious events cannot be reliably quantified because prospective registries and denominator data are absent, and they caution that a frequently cited historical low estimate has uncertain methods. They also say the current evidence does not show a pattern of frequent serious harm when a standardized protocol is followed. Most safety data came from mixed populations, not from people with fibromyalgia.

Plain autologous blood and the limits of safety data

For intramuscular untreated whole blood, the systematic review reports that major side effects have not been noted and that mild reactions such as local bruising and soreness are regarded as inherent to the therapy. It states that infection risk is low when the blood is not manipulated and normal injection hygiene is observed. The review did not extract adverse-event data for each trial, so this rests on the authors' summary.

Across ozone trials, safety is inconsistently reported. The zoster meta-analysis found no significant difference in adverse reactions between groups, while the umbrella review said data did not allow firm conclusions about adverse events. The sources reviewed do not cover ultraviolet-irradiated blood, homeopathically prepared blood, use in children or use in pregnancy. This page is information only; autohemotherapy should not delay or replace necessary medical care, and anyone considering it can discuss the documented risks with a licensed clinician.