Aortocoronary bypass in Jehovah's Witnesses: review of 46 patients

The hemodilution technique for cardiopulmonary bypass using blood substitutes for priming has permitted open heart operations in Jehovah's Witnesses who refuse to accept blood, and has reduced the need for massive blood transfusion in certain procedures including aortocoronary bypass. A series...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inThe American surgeon Vol. 42; no. 1; p. 17
Main Author Sandiford, F M
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States 01.01.1976
Subjects
Adult
Aged
Angina Pectoris - surgery
Blood Transfusion
Christianity
Coronary Artery Bypass - methods
Female
Hematocrit
Hemoglobins - analysis
Humans
Male
Middle Aged
Plasma Substitutes
Postoperative Complications
Religion and Medicine
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Summary:The hemodilution technique for cardiopulmonary bypass using blood substitutes for priming has permitted open heart operations in Jehovah's Witnesses who refuse to accept blood, and has reduced the need for massive blood transfusion in certain procedures including aortocoronary bypass. A series of 46 Jehovah's Witness patients underwent aortocoronary bypass procedures. Of these, two patients died, representing a mortality of 4.3 per cent. Neither patient's death was related to lack of blood transfusions. The hospital stay and recovery time of all the other patients was not affected by failure to transfuse blood. The excellent short- and long-term results of this particular group paralleled those observed in our larger series of over 2700 other patients who have undergone coronary bypass surgery since 1969. Among these patients not of the Jehovah's Witness religion, blood transfusion was not necessary in about 30 per cent, while the remainder averaged less than two units per patient. Our results with Jehovah's Witness patients encourage our policy of avoiding blood transfusions whenever possible in all operations. Further justification for our conservative attitude is provided by the current shortage of blood in relation to a projected continuous increase of aortocoronary bypass procedures in the future.
ISSN:0003-1348