Repeat cardiac surgery in a Jehovah's Witness patient with thrombocytopenia

Elsayed Elmistekawy1, Harry Lapierre, Michael Bourke

  • 1Division of Cardiac Surgery, University of Ottawa Heart Institute, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

Complex cardiac surgery in Jehovah's Witness patients can be challenging, especially if it is a reoperation and the patient has a preexisting bleeding disorder. We operated on a patient who was declined for percutaneous aortic valve replacement and who required repeat surgery for aortic valve repeat replacement and root repair. In addition to being of Jehovah's Witness faith, the patient had chronic thrombocytopenia. We describe our strategy in managing this situation.

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