Abstract

JIMENEZ J, César Eduardo. Medical and surgical recommendations intended to diminish the use and loss of blood components. rev. colomb. cir. [online]. 2005, vol.20, n.2, pp.105-117. ISSN 2011-7582.

The use of blood components has been diminishing in medical practice because of the increase in the incidence of diseases transmitted by blood transfusions and the awareness on the part of the medical profession that blood transfusion is a true transplant with all inherente complications; surgeons are confronting the patients´ refusal to receive blood components due to personal or religious convictions, as in the case of Jehova´s witnesses. There are many approaches to minimize the loss and use of blood in surgery, varying from meticulous surgical technique to the use of substances that stimulate erithrocyte volume, such as erithropoyetin and iron; antifibrinolytic substances such as the analogues of lysine and intraoperative measures (such as cell saving) and anesthetic techniques oriented torward disminishing the loss of blood. In this paper we report the case of a Jehova´s witness managed with some of these measures and review the literatures pertaining to current recommendatious for advanced transfusional techniques.

Keywords : blood transfusion; blood substitutes; blood preservation; Jehovah's witnesses.

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