2007/03/15 by Roman M. Sniecinski, Edward P. Chen, Jerrold H. Levy +2 · 1 citation
Medicine · #Hemophilia Treatment and Research #Blood transfusion and management #Trauma, Hemostasis, Coagulopathy, Resuscitation #Medicine #Cryoprecipitate #Cardiopulmonary bypass #Coagulopathy #Recombinant factor VIIa #Fresh frozen plasma #Antithrombin #Anesthesia #Surgery #Heparin #Internal medicine #Fibrinogen #Platelet
paper · doi:10.1213/01.ane.0000250913.45299.f3
openalex publication_date 2007/03/15 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30
In Brief BACKGROUND: Changes in the Jehovah's Witness (JW) blood refusal policy now give members the personal choice to accept certain processed fractions of blood, such as factor concentrates and cryoprecipitate. METHODS: Two JW patients undergoing complex aortic surgery who developed severe microvascular bleeding after prolonged use of cardiopulmonary bypass were treated with recombinant activated factor VII, cryoprecipitate, and antithrombin concentrate. RESULTS: Cardiopulmonary bypass-induced coagulopathy was successfully treated, allowing chest closure without evidence of thrombotic complications. CONCLUSIONS: Processed blood fractions can be a valuable adjuvant to drugs when treating bleeding in JW patients. IMPLICATIONS: Combined use of rFVIIa, cryoprecipitate, and antithrombin concentrate successfully treated cardiopulmonary bypass-induced coagulopathy in two Jehovah's Witness patients. Clinicians should be aware that selected blood components in addition to drugs can be used for managing this patient population.