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Case Reports
. 2022 Feb 22:13:93-96.
doi: 10.2147/JBM.S347249. eCollection 2022.

"Bloodless" Major Pulmonary Resection in Two Jehovah's Witnesses Patients with Non-Small Cell Lung Carcinoma

Tomer Snir  1 , Ilya Kirgner  2 , Nachum Nesher  3 , Yaacov Abramov  3 , Marina Kolodii  3 , Sharbel Azzam  3 , Michael Peer  3
Affiliations
Case Reports

"Bloodless" Major Pulmonary Resection in Two Jehovah's Witnesses Patients with Non-Small Cell Lung Carcinoma

Tomer Snir et al. J Blood Med. .

Abstract

Background: Blood transfusion rates during surgery and hospitalization for thoracic surgery vary from 16% to 55%. The religious beliefs of Jehovah's Witnesses (JW) permit medical and surgical procedures but exclude the use of blood and blood products. Performing major pulmonary resection without the possibility of compensating for blood loss is a daunting challenge that few surgeons are willing to meet.

Methods: The clinical and surgical data on two JW patients who underwent major pulmonary resections for non-small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC) in Tel Aviv Medical Center between the years 2019 and 2020 were retrieved from the departmental databases and analyzed for the requirement and consumption of blood products. The patients were a 70-year-old female and a 49-year-old man that have underwent a completion right upper lobe lobectomy and a left lower lobe lobectomy, respectively.

Results: None required blood transfusions and the surgeries were successful, demonstrating that it is possible to successfully perform "bloodless" major pulmonary resection while respecting the limitations set by the patient's religious beliefs.

Conclusion: This concept paves the way for the consideration of major pulmonary resection for patients who are currently denied such procedures due to religious restrictions or to their being high-risk surgical candidates, when resources are limited or lacking.

Keywords: Jehovah’s Witnesses; bloodless thoracic surgery; lobectomy.

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Conflict of interest statement

The manuscript is original, there is no conflict of interest in publishing it and no type of grant from any funding agency received. All named authors have given their permission for this submission.

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