Open-heart surgery in Jehovah's Witnesses: experience in a Canadian hospital.

Jehovah's Witnesses have religious belief precluding the use of blood. Few centers have attempted open-heart surgery bound by such strictures; as a result, availability of therapy for such patients has been limited. Many groups that have extensive experience with hemodilution for cardiopulmonary bypass have noted that these procedures can often be done with little or no use of blood. Our experience with 21 adult patients is presented in this paper.