Use of erythropoietin for bloodless surgery in a Jehovah's witness infant

Summary We present a case of surgery in a 2‐month‐old infant of the Jehovah's Witness (JW) faith weighing 2.8 kg scheduled for left upper lobectomy because of congenital lobar emphysema. He presented with physiological anaemia (haematocrit 33.8%) in accordance with his age. Because of the relative emergency of surgery, a short erythropoietin course was instituted. Recombinant human erythropoietin (rHuEPO) at a dosage of 180 U·kg−1·day−1 was administered for 10 days preoperatively and for 4 days postoperatively. Iron was administered orally and intravenously over the entire perioperative period. No side‐effects from either erythropoietin or intravenously administered iron were observed. To our knowledge, this is the first case published of a short perioperative rHuEPO course in an infant.