Extensive cytoreductive surgery in a Jehovah’s Witness patient A case report
Carlo Vallicelli 1, Fausto Catena 1, Claudio Ghermandi 2, Annalisa Amaduzzi 1, Federico Coccolini 3, Lucia Cipolat 2, Matteo Martignani 2, Daniel Lazzareschi 4, Michele Cucchi 1, Riccardo Schiavina 5, Antonio Pinna 1
Affiliations
Article Info
1 Unit of General and Transplant Surgery, Sant’Orsola-Malpighi University Hospital, Bologna, Italy
2 Unit of Anaesthesiology, Sant’Orsola-Malpighi University Hospital, Bologna, Italy
3 General and Emergency Surgery Department, Ospedali Riuniti, Bergamo, Italy
4 Department of Integrative Biology, University of California, Berkeley
5 Unit of Urology, Sant’Orsola-Malpighi University Hospital, Bologna, Italy
Abstract
Jehovah’s Witnesses are a well-known patient demographic in medicine because of their religious-based refusal of blood transfusion. This case report outlines the treatment of a Jehovah’s Witness patient in need of an extensive cytoreductive surgery due to a peritoneal carcinomatosis of ovarian origin. The surgeons carried out all the recommended surgical and anaesthetic measures concluding that extensive cytoreductive surgery on a Jehovah’s Witness is possible and that a complete cytoreduction can be safely performed.
Keywords
- Jehovah’s carcinoma
- Peritoneal carcinoma
- Transfusions