Cardiac operation for congenital heart disease in children of Jehovah's Witnesses.

We reviewed the perioperative courses of 110 children of members of the Jehovah's Witness faith who underwent 112 operations for complete repair of congenital heart disease with cardiopulmonary bypass. Operations were performed over a 20 year period, ending June, 1983. The children ranged in age from 6 months to 12 years and weighed 5.2 to 42.3 kg. Thirty-nine (34.8%) of the patients weighed less than 15 kg, 36 (32.1%) were polycythemic preoperatively, and 26 (23%) had previous thoracic operations. All operations were performed during normothermic cardiopulmonary bypass with a glucose crystalloid prime. No patient received any blood or blood products during hospitalization. Perioperative mortality was 5.4%. Only one of the deaths could be attributed to blood loss. Complications occurred in 10 patients, and none of these could be attributed to failure to transfuse. The results demonstrate that cardiac operations can be safely performed in children denied transfusion and suggest that hemodilution techniques might be used more extensively in children undergoing cardiac operations.