AccScience Publishing / JCTR / Online First / DOI: 10.36922/JCTR026190037
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ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Hospital outcomes in Jehovah’s Witness patients with acute gastrointestinal bleeding: A matched cohort study

Taraji 1Long Porsha Okiye2 Chakravarthy Nulu1 Rithvick Kumar1 Andrew Bouffler2 Ali Mirza2 Vishnavi Batchu1 Amit Hudgi3 Humberto Sifuentes3 Raguraj Chandradevan3*
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1 Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University, Augusta, GA, United States of America
2 Department of Internal Medicine, Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University, Augusta, GA, United States of America
3 Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Department of Internal Medicine, Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University, Augusta, GA, United States of America
Received: 4 May 2026 | Revised: 27 July 2026 | Accepted: 11 August 2026 | Published online: 27 August 2026
© 2026 by the Author(s). This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution -Noncommercial 4.0 International License (CC-by the license) ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ )
Abstract

Background: Acute gastrointestinal bleeding (GIB) may require urgent resuscitation, endoscopy, and red blood cell (RBC) transfusion. Management is particularly challenging in Jehovah’s Witness (JW) patients who decline RBC transfusion. Aim: To compare short-term hospital outcomes between JW patients with acute GIB and individually matched transfusion-eligible comparators. Methods: We conducted a single-center retrospective matched cohort study of adults admitted from 2010 to 2026. Twenty-two JW patients who declined RBC transfusion and underwent inpatient endoscopy were manually matched 1:1 with comparators admitted within 7 calendar days, managed by the same attending gastroenterologist, and meeting the applicable high-risk threshold of Glasgow–Blatchford Score > 6 for suspected upper GIB or Oakland Score > 8 for suspected lower GIB. Paired t-tests or Wilcoxon signed-rank tests were used as appropriate. Results: Mean initial hemoglobin was 8.45 g/dL in JW patients and 9.06 g/dL in comparators (paired difference, −0.61 g/dL; 95% CI, −2.81 to 1.58; p = 0.567). Mean hemoglobin at endoscopy was 8.35 and 9.24 g/dL, respectively (paired difference, −0.89 g/dL; 95% CI, −2.54 to 0.75; p = 0.273). Admission-to-procedure time did not differ significantly (p = 0.472). Median hospital length of stay was 5.5 versus 3.5 days and was longer among JW patients (p = 0.020). Conclusion: No statistically significant differences were detected in hemoglobin outcomes or procedure timing, but JW patients had longer hospital stays. Findings are exploratory and limited by the small sample, residual imbalance, and unavailable patient-level severity scores. Relevance for Patients: Patients with acute GIB who decline RBC transfusion may benefit from individualized monitoring, blood-conservation strategies, and careful discharge planning.

Keywords
Jehovah’s Witness
Gastrointestinal bleeding
Bloodless medicine
Endoscopy
Red blood cell transfusion
Acute anemia
Matched cohort study
Funding
None.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
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Journal of Clinical and Translational Research, Electronic ISSN: 2424-810X Print ISSN: 2382-6533, Published by AccScience Publishing