Issue |
J Extra Corpor Technol
Volume 44, Number 1, March 2012
|
|
---|---|---|
Page(s) | 39 - 42 | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/ject/201244039 | |
Published online | 15 March 2012 |
Case Report
Bloodless Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation in the Jehovah’s Witness Patient
* The Department of Cardiovascular Perfusion, The Heart Center at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, Columbus, Ohio
† Department of Pediatrics, Division of Critical Care Medicine, Nationwide Children’s Hospital, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio
Address correspondence to: Thomas J. Preston, BS, CCP, Department of Cardiovascular Perfusion, The Heart Center at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, 700 Children’s Drive, Room T2289, Columbus, OH 43205. E-mail: Thomas.Preston@NationwideChildrens.org
Received:
12
August
2011
Accepted:
10
December
2011
The successful use of prolonged extracorporeal life support with a heart-lung machine was first performed in 1972, as described by Hill et al., on a young man with post-traumatic respiratory failure. The first successful use of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) was 1976 by Bartlett et al. Since this time, the use of ECMO for neonatal and pediatric pulmonary support has become a standard of care in many children’s hospitals. The use of ECMO, being a very invasive procedure, is not without risk. In our experience, most patients require multiple transfusions of the different blood components (packed red blood cells, plasma, platelets, and cryoprecipitate). Exposure to one or more blood products often occurs with connection to the ECMO circuit, as the circuit is generally primed with blood products or whole blood. Jehovah’s Witnesses (JWs) are known best in the medical community for their refusal of blood products, even at the risk of death, which presents challenges for health care providers. This belief stems from the biblical passages that have been quoted as forbidding transfusion: Genesis 9:3–4, Leviticus 17:13–14, and Acts 15:19–21. This refusal of blood poses even greater challenges when treating the pediatric JW population. When a blood product is deemed medically necessary for the JW patient, the healthcare provider must either seek legal intervention, or support the patient’s/family’s wishes and associated outcome. This ethical dilemma may be further complicated in the setting of therapies, which may pose additional risks and potentially less clear benefit such as with ECMO. Bloodless cardiac surgery with cardiopulmonary bypass has been reported in the JW population in adults and pediatrics, including neonates. After a thorough search of the literature, no published report of a JW patient being supported on ECMO without blood or blood component utilization was identified. This case report will present our experience with multiple day, bloodless ECMO support of a 17-year-old male patient of the JW faith.
Key words: extracorporeal membrane oxygenation / extracorporeal life support / Jehovah’s Witness / erythropoietin / bloodless
© 2012 AMSECT
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