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Review
. 2024 Oct;55(4):445-451.
doi: 10.1016/j.ocl.2024.04.003. Epub 2024 May 13.

Treating Osteoarthritis in Jehovah's Witness Patients

Casey Cardillo  1 , Benjamin C Schaffler  1 , Kevin Lehane  1 , Akram A Habibi  1 , Ran Schwarzkopf  2 , Claudette M Lajam  1
Affiliations
Review

Treating Osteoarthritis in Jehovah's Witness Patients

Casey Cardillo et al. Orthop Clin North Am. 2024 Oct.

Abstract

This article addresses the challenges surrounding hip and knee osteoarthritis (OA) treatment in Jehovah's Witnesses (JWs), focusing on the complexities arising from their refusal of blood products and transfusions. Acknowledging the heightened risk of blood loss anemia during joint replacement surgery, this review explores documented strategies that enable safe elective joint arthroplasty in JW patients, emphasizing comparable initial diagnostic methods and non-operative treatments up until the pre-operative stage. Special considerations should be taken in the perioperative and intraoperative stage. Despite these challenges, safe arthroplasty is feasible with satisfactory outcomes through a combination of careful preoperative optimization, blood saving protocols, and cultural sensitivity.

Keywords: Autonomy; Blood loss anemia; Bloodless surgery; Ethics; Jehovah’s witness; Tranexamic acid.

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Conflict of interest statement

Disclosure R. Schwarzkopf- AAOS: Board or committee member; American Association of Hip and Knee Surgeons: Board or committee member; Arthroplasty Today: Editorial or governing board; Gauss surgical: Stock or stock Options; Intelijoint: Paid consultant, Stock or stock Options; Journal of Arthroplasty: Editorial or governing board; PSI: Stock or stock Options; Smith & Nephew, United Kingdom: IP royalties, Paid consultant, Research support; Zimmer: Paid consultant. C.M. Lajam- AAOS: Board or committee member; American Association of Hip and Knee Surgeons: Board or committee member; Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research: Editorial or governing board; Elsevier: Publishing royalties, financial or material support; FundamentalVR: Unpaid consultant; HJD Bulletin: Editorial or governing board; Journal of Arthroplasty: Editorial or governing board. C. Cardillo, B.C. Schaffler, K. Lehane, and A.A. Habibi have nothing to disclose.

MeSH terms