ReviewJournal of medical ethics and history of medicine2016
Medical futility and its challenges: a review study.
Review in Journal of medical ethics and history of medicine, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 37 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
37 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- A systematic review defining non-beneficial and inappropriate end-of-life treatment in patients with non-cancer diagnoses: theoretical development for multi-stakeholder intervention design in acute care settings.BMC palliative care · 2022Pooled it
- [When the one who heals dies. The physician at the end of life].Revista medica del Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social · 2026Review
- Artificial intelligence and medical futility.BMC medical informatics and decision making · 2026Review
- Concorde Syndrome in the Treatment of People with Cancer: Validation of a Measurement Instrument.International journal of behavioral medicine · 2026Article
- Ethical considerations in randomization for neurosurgical oncology trials: A scoping review.Neuro-oncology practice · 2026Review
- Large Resectable Pancreatic Cancer is Associated with Futile Surgery: A Resectable But Not Curable Disease?Annals of surgical oncology · 2026Article
- Medical futility and the ethics of continuing treatment: a hermeneutic inquiry into patient and physician perspectives.Philosophy, ethics, and humanities in medicine : PEHM · 2025Article
- Environmental sustainability in healthcare: impacts of climate change, challenges and opportunities.Singapore medical journal · 2025Review
- Dynamic Changes in Bilirubin Predict 90-Day Mortality in Patients With Hepatocellular Carcinoma and Acute Decompensations of Cirrhosis: The HCC-AD Score.Mayo Clinic proceedings. Innovations, quality & outcomes · 2025Article
- Perception of futile care and the reasons behind providing it for the patients at end-of-life stages from the care providers' perspective.Philosophy, ethics, and humanities in medicine : PEHM · 2025Article
- Predicting one-year outcomes after TAVI: evidence from a two-site Swiss registry.BMC cardiovascular disorders · 2025Observational
- Clinicians' Perceptions About Institutional Factors in Moral Distress Related to Potentially Nonbeneficial Treatments.JAMA network open · 2025Article
- Relationship of intensive care unit nurses' attitudes towards futile treatment with compassion fatigue and turnover intention.Nursing in critical care · 2025Article
- Futility in TAVI: A scoping review of definitions, predictive criteria, and medical predictive models.PloS one · 2025Article
- Navigating end-of-life conversations: A reflection on goals of care in Nepal.Palliative care and social practice · 2025Article
- Futility in healthcare among Mexican female patients with breast cancer in advanced stage: The patient perspective.PloS one · 2025Article
- Medical futility at the end of life: the first qualitative study of ethical decision-making methods among Turkish doctors.BMC medical ethics · 2024Article
- Issues and implications of the life-sustaining treatment decision act: comparing the data from the survey and clinical data of inpatients at the end-of-life process.BMC medical ethics · 2024Observational
- Did the Palliative Care Outcomes Collaboration (PCOC) program lead to improved end-of-life care quality and reduced non-beneficial treatments?Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer · 2024Article
- Cardiogenic Shock in Older Adults: A Focus on Age-Associated Risks and Approach to Management: A Scientific Statement From the American Heart Association.Circulation · 2024Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Concerns over limited medical equipment and resources, particularly in intensive care units (ICUs), have raised the issue of medical futility. Medical futility draws a contrast between physician's authority and patients' autonomy and it is one of the major issues of end-of-life ethical decision-making. The aim of this study was to review medical futility and its challenges. In this systematized review study, a comprehensive search of the existing literature was performed using an internet search with broad keywords to access related articles in both Persian and English databases. Finally, 89 articles were selected and surveyed. Medical futility is a complex, ambiguous, subjective, situation-specific, value-laden, and goal-dependent concept which is almost always surrounded by some degrees of uncertainty; hence, there is no objective and valid criterion for its determination. This concept is affected by many different factors such as physicians' and patients' value systems, medical goals, and sociocultural and religious context, and individuals' emotions and personal characteristics. It is difficult to achieve a clear consensus over the concept of medical futility; hence, it should be defined and determined at an individual level and based on the unique condition of each patient.
Indexed as
Identifiers
28050241PMC5203684What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.