Clinical pathology selected abstracts
February 2013—Outcome of patients who refuse transfusion after cardiac surgery: Jehovah’s Witness patients may refuse blood transfusion, due to religious beliefs, following cardiac surgery. Strategies to conserve blood for such patients may include the preoperative use of erythropoietin, iron, and B-complex vitamins, as well as hemoconcentration; intraoperative use of antifibrinolytics and cell-saver and smaller cardiopulmonary bypass circuits; and tolerance of low hematocrit levels postoperatively.