Preoperative Management of a Jehovah's Witness Patient Undergoing Head and Neck Surgery With High Risk of Bleeding.

Surgery in head and neck district is often associated with bleeding as major complication and need of blood transfusions. Homologous blood transfusions may be unacceptable to some patient groups such as the Jehovah's Witness (JW) patients. Refusal of potentially life-saving treatment creates ethical dilemmas for treating clinicians.This is the first report in literature which examines the management and treatment of a female JW patient who underwent major surgical procedure for squamous cell carcinoma of the jaw with a high risk of hemorrage which rejected any possibility of blood and hemocomponent transfusion by virtue of her religious principles.