Originally developed in the US during the 2^nd World War as a blood substitute for military casualties, human albumin is commonly used as a colloid replacement therapy for hypovolaemia, burns, or hypoalbuminaemia.  The traditional cold ethanol fractionation (Cohn or Kistler and Nitschmann processes) of large plasma pools still forms the basis of most albumin purification procedures, although additional or alternative chromatographic procedures have been introduced by some manufacturers.  Modern human albumin solutions are typically 95-98% pure, and are produced at 2 concentrations: 4.5-5% albumin, and 20-25% albumin, for different clinical indications.