Successful use of recombinant human erythropoietin in a Jehovah's Witness with a thermal injury.

Options for treating the Jehovah's Witness with burns who repeatedly refuses blood are very limited. This article describes the use of human recombinant erythropoietin as an alternative to blood transfusion in a Jehovah's Witness with a 35% total body surface area burn. The combination of erythropoietin treatment, limited blood drawing, and excision and grafting under tourniquet control allowed this patient to undergo successful burn care, including four operative procedures to excise and graft 19.5% of the body surface area.