I see a medical decision as a process through so that the patient fully understands what they prefer so that they can discuss with the MD all options, and thus it becomes informed patient choice. The question remains:

How should a MD involve a patient undergoing an elective operation in the decision to use a blood transfusion or not?

Dear Drsarishvili,

But I found this manual to be rather informative for me. It is on prescribing blood - a checklist for clinicians P.165 always ask yourself the following questions before prescribing blood or blood products for a patient. It also gives the pros and cons of blood transfusions. See this link to download the manual: http://www.noblood.org/file/20

There is another informative link at: http://www.noblood.org/file/18 . It involves Jehovah's Witnesses stance of why they abstain from blood transfusions. This principle still applies to elective operations.

__________________
Sharon Grant
Editorial Team