Major thoracic surgery in Jehovah's witness: A multidisciplinary approach case report

A bloodless surgery can be desirable also for non Jehovah's witnesses patients, but requires a team approach from the very first assessment to ensure adequate planning.

Our patient, a Jehovah's witnesses, was scheduled for right lower lobectomy due to pulmonary adenocarcinoma. Her firm denies to receive any kind of transfusions, forced clinicians to a bloodless management of the case.

Before surgery a meticulous coagulopathy research and hemodynamic optimization are useful to prepare patient to operation. During surgery, controlled hypotension can help to obtain effective hemostasis. After surgery, clinicians monitored any possible active bleeding, using continuous noninvasive hemoglobin monitoring, limiting the blood loss due to serial in vitro testing. The optimization of cardiac index and delivery of oxygen were continued to grant a fast recovery.

Bloodless surgery is likely to gain popularity, and become standard practice for all patients. The need for transfusion should be targeted on individual case, avoiding strictly fixed limit often leading to unnecessary transfusion.