Abstract

The Jehovah's Witnesses are best known to outsider for their refusal of blood products, even such a refusal may result in death. In years, a "bloodless surgery" was developed with the aim of avoid blood transfusions and improve patient outcome, shifting from a product-centred to a patient-centred approach. An accurate teamwork is needed to define a perioperative transfusion-alternative program, individualized for patients' characteristics and surgical procedure. The objective of this article is to review how to properly manage, in the perioperative period, patients who refuse blood transfusions.

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