title: Bovine hemoglobin: a nontraditional approach to the management of acute anemia in a Jehovah's Witness patient with autoimmune hemolytic anemia.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Management of severe symptomatic anemia in critically ill Jehovah's Witness patients remains a challenge. The paucity of therapeutic alternatives to human red blood cells has prompted the use of blood substitutes.
  
  
  METHODS
  A 19-year-old female Jehovah's Witness patient presented to the emergency department following several episodes of syncope. She was found to have a positive Coombs test and was diagnosed with warm-bodied autoimmune hemolytic anemia. Upon admission, her hemoglobin was 8.4 g/dL, then dropped to a nadir of 2.8 g/dL 4 days later. She received traditional management with corticosteroids, intravenous immune globulin, rituximab, and partial splenic artery embolization. Despite these therapies, hemoglobin levels failed to respond, and she experienced signs of marked ischemia. A decision was made to give 2 units of Hemopure, a bovine hemoglobin-based oxygen carrier, and the hemoglobin levels increased to 8.7 g/dL 10 days later. The patient's overall clinical condition improved leading to subsequent hospital discharge.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This case exemplifies the ingenuity that health care practitioners must use in critical situations involving the medical management of anemic Jehovah's Witness patients who refuse blood products. Hemopure was used as "bridging treatment" to help save a patient from the devastating effects of ischemia resulting from severe anemia.
authors.affiliation: Tampa General Hospital, Tampa, FL, USA. sjordan@tgh.org
authors.forename: Shane D
authors.initials: SD
authors.lastname: Jordan
authors.forename: Earnest
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Alexander
mesh_terms: D000208:Acute Disease; D000744:Anemia, Hemolytic, Autoimmune / Q000628:therapy*; D000818:Animals; D001802:Blood Substitutes / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D002417:Cattle; D003298:Coombs Test; D005260:Female; D006454:Hemoglobins / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D033221:Jehovah's Witnesses; D013575:Syncope / Q000209:etiology; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D016312:Treatment Refusal; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D001802:Blood Substitutes; D006454:Hemoglobins; C096798:HBOC 201