ReviewThe British journal of surgery2020
Immediate and long-term impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on delivery of surgical services.
Review in The British journal of surgery, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT04616950 (Impact of the COVID-19 Epidemic on the Hospital Journey of Patients With Cancer of the Digestive System), which is not on this map. Cited by 392 papers, 4 of them syntheses 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.
Impact of the COVID-19 Epidemic on the Hospital Journey of Patients With Cancer of the Digestive System: Description of Typical Pathways and Simulation Model
Who cites it
392 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Health financing policies during the COVID-19 pandemic and implications for universal health care: a case study of 15 countries.The Lancet. Global health · 2023Pooled it
- Rapid Evaluation of Coronavirus Illness Severity (RECOILS) in intensive care: Development and validation of a prognostic tool for in-hospital mortality.Acta anaesthesiologica Scandinavica · 2022Pooled it
- Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on interventional radiology services across the world.Clinical radiology · 2021Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Efficacy of Fibrin Glue in Skin Grafts for Skin Cancer (FiGSS): Open Randomised Clinical Trial.Annals of surgical oncology · 2026Trial
- Tele-mentoring - a way to expand laparoscopic simulator training for medical students over large distances: a prospective randomized pilot study.BMC medical education · 2023Trial
- The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on stress and other psychological factors in pregnant women giving birth during the first wave of the pandemic.Reproductive health · 2022Trial
- Student Acceptance of Virtual Bedside Surgical Tutorials During COVID-19: A Randomized Controlled Trial.The Journal of surgical research · 2022Trial
- Durapore vs. Hy-Tape for securing endotracheal tubes during general anaesthesia: a prospective randomised controlled non-inferiority trial.Anaesthesiology intensive therapy · 2022Trial
- Refining the role of behavioural and social sciences in pandemic response post-COVID-19.Nature human behaviour · 2026Review
- Understanding implementation of the 'high volume, low complexity' surgical hubs programme in England: a qualitative study.BMJ open · 2026Article
- How Did Women From South Asian Backgrounds and People Seeking Asylum and Refugees Look After Their Health and the Health of Others During the COVID-19 Pandemic? A Community Research Approach.Health expectations : an international journal of public participation in health care and health policy · 2026Article
- Epidemiology of children and adolescents undergoing surgery at Mexican public hospitals: a retrospective registry-based analysis from 2010 to 2022.BMC pediatrics · 2026Article
- Changes in Disease Severity and Outcomes Among Electively Admitted Cirrhosis Patients During the COVID-19 Era.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Article
- Preoperative Health During a Pandemic: An Observational Study Assessing Lifestyle Changes in Patients Associated With COVID-19 in Western Australia.Health science reports · 2026Article
- Differential Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Surgical Utilization by Procedure Type: Analysis of Korean National Health Insurance Data [2017-2021].Journal of clinical medicine · 2026Article
- The COVID-19 Pandemic as a Lesson: WHO Actions Versus the Expectations of Medical Staff-Evidence from Poland.Journal of clinical medicine · 2026Article
- Healthcare system disruption across WHO-declared PHEICs: a 4S comparative case analysis.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- Comparative efficiency of Asian surgical systems in COVID-19 response: a multi-level longitudinal benchmarking study.BMJ public health · 2026Article
332 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
15 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThe ongoing pandemic is having a collateral health effect on delivery of surgical care to millions of patients. Very little is known about pandemic management and effects on other services, including delivery of surgery.
methodsThis was a scoping review of all available literature pertaining to COVID-19 and surgery, using electronic databases, society websites, webinars and preprint repositories.
resultsSeveral perioperative guidelines have been issued within a short time. Many suggestions are contradictory and based on anecdotal data at best. As regions with the highest volume of operations per capita are being hit, an unprecedented number of operations are being cancelled or deferred. No major stakeholder seems to have considered how a pandemic deprives patients with a surgical condition of resources, with patients disproportionally affected owing to the nature of treatment (use of anaesthesia, operating rooms, protective equipment, physical invasion and need for perioperative care). No recommendations exist regarding how to reopen surgical delivery. The postpandemic evaluation and future planning should involve surgical services as an essential part to maintain appropriate surgical care for the population during an outbreak. Surgical delivery, owing to its cross-cutting nature and synergistic effects on health systems at large, needs to be built into the WHO agenda for national health planning.
conclusionPatients are being deprived of surgical access, with uncertain loss of function and risk of adverse prognosis as a collateral effect of the pandemic. Surgical services need a contingency plan for maintaining surgical care in an ongoing or postpandemic phase.
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What 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.