Surgical & Heart Information

Bloodless surgery is an approach to health care that avoids the use of transfused blood. It has grown over the last four decades to minimize the need for transfusions during surgery. With thousands of people dying each year due to being given contaminated blood it's easy to understand the growing popularity of bloodless surgery and medicine. Candidates for bloodless procedures would be those interested in avoiding the risk of contracting hepatitis, HIV and other viral infections and also those looking to reduce their health care cost.

The following are various methods used in performing bloodless surgery. Depending on the surgical operation being performed one of the following methods may be used:

Hemodilution: This is the most common method of bloodless surgery. One to two pints of blood are removed from the patient before surgery begins and routed through an apheresis machine to separate the red blood cells and clear plasma. The plasma and clear saline solution are then put back into the patient so that their blood volume remains the same. Since the red blood cells have been removed, any blood lost during surgery will have far less hemoglobin in it than normal.

Hormones: A synthetic version of the hormone erythropoietin is given to patients before and after surgery to stimulate the manufacture of oxygen-carrying red blood cells in the bone marrow and build up a patient's hemoglobin counts. This helps ensure that patients will not be anemic before surgery and helps rebuild red blood cell counts after surgery.

Cautery: Blood vessels are sealed off by electric and argon laser beam scalpels to slow blood loss for surgeons during the operation. In order to cut off blood supply, surgical clamps are put in place to the area being operated on.

Microsampling: Through microsampling, doctors can tell if a patient needs plasma for clotting or red blood cells. Doctors use machines to analyze a single drop of blood inside the operating room to check on its clotting and oxygen-carrying ability.

Due to the religious beliefs of Jehovah's Witnesses on blood transfusions, bloodless surgery was pursued to treat these patients in emergency medical situations. Many of the large bloodless surgery centers in the United States are located in areas with a large population of Jehovah's Witnesses.

In respecting the religious beliefs of Jehovah's Witnesses, patients' rights and their ethical concern were given attention as well. As a majority of bloodless surgical procedures are requested by Jehovah's Witnesses, there has been an increase in other patients requesting bloodless surgery as well.

Doctor Morales and Doctor Bielefeld are able to accommodate the request of Jehovah's Witnesses or other patients seeking to have bloodless surgery at the their own request. Doctor Morales and Doctor Bielefeld are able to perform the aforementioned techniques.

The information provided is for educational purposes only and is not intended to be used as a substitute for an informed discussion with your physician. If you have further questions regarding this procedure, please write them down so your physician or other healthcare professionals can answer them for you.