Major abdominal operations on Jehovah's Witnesses.

Thirteen major operations have been successfully performed on 11 Jehovah's Witnesses, without complications. After detailed preadmission assessment, all patients received pretreatment assurances that their religious beliefs would be respected, regardless of the circumstances in the operating room. There were no untoward effects of this policy. Whereas the religious and legal aspects of the issue may be confusing and unacceptable to some surgeons, those undertaking to treat such patients must use ancillary means, technical variations, and alternatives to standard procedures in order to minimize risks and achieve acceptable results. Preoperative agreement should be viewed as binding by the surgeon and should be adhered to regardless of events developing during and after operation. Such an approach constitutes the best preoperative preparation, orients the patients positively toward their surgical treatment, and diverts the surgeon's attention from the legal and philosophical considerations to the surgical and technical ones, thus, allowing him to perform optimally and serve his patient's best interests. The recovery phase in this small series of electively performed operations occurred at anticipated rates and no postoperative complications developed.