title: Surgery in Jehovah's Witnesses.
abstract: This is a retrospective study of the outcome of surgical procedures in patients who were Jehovah's Witnesses. Over a 75-month period, 58 Jehovah's Witness patients had 78 surgical procedures at the Vancouver General Hospital. Three patients had preexisting anaemia of less than 100 g.L-1 haemoglobin. Postoperative haemoglobin concentration decreased below 50 g.L-1 in three patients. One patient had a postoperative haemoglobin of 34 g.L-1 (haematocrit 10.1 per cent) and survived. One patient died from uncontrollable postoperative haemorrhage. Perioperative morbidity was not uncommon, including significant hypotension (eight cases), cardiac arrhythmias (six), myocardial ischaemia (three), excessive bleeding (four), postoperative nausea or syncope (four), and wound or urinary tract infection (four).
authors.affiliation: Department of Anaesthesia, Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver.
authors.forename: D H
authors.initials: DH
authors.lastname: Wong
authors.forename: L C
authors.initials: LC
authors.lastname: Jenkins
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000740:Anemia / Q000150:complications; D000768:Anesthesia, General; D001803:Blood Transfusion; D002648:Child; D002835:Christianity; D032962:Consent Forms; D030881:Disclosure; D005260:Female; D006454:Hemoglobins / Q000032:analysis; D006470:Hemorrhage; D006801:Humans; D033221:Jehovah's Witnesses; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012068:Religion and Medicine; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D018570:Risk Assessment; D013514:Surgical Procedures, Operative
chemical_list: D006454:Hemoglobins