ArticleBMJ open2021
Life or limb: an international qualitative study on decision making in sarcoma surgery during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Article in BMJ open, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 8 citations in OpenAlex.
- Can we ever have evidence-based decision making in orthopaedics? A qualitative evidence synthesis and conceptual framework.BMC medical informatics and decision making · 2025Pooled it
- Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Canadian healthcare workforce: a rapid evidence synthesis of key considerations, lessons learned, and promising practices to address the healthcare workforce crisis.Health research policy and systems · 2025Article
- How Musculoskeletal Tumor Management Changed During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Data from a Nationwide Questionnaire Survey of Hospitals Specializing in Musculoskeletal Tumors in Japan.Current oncology (Toronto, Ont.) · 2025Article
- Mesenchymal Tumor Management: Integrating Surgical and Non-Surgical Strategies in Different Clinical Scenarios.Cancers · 2024Review
- Cancer may accelerate locomotive syndrome and deteriorate quality of life: a single-centre cross-sectional study of locomotive syndrome in cancer patients.International journal of clinical oncology · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
21 authors at 18 institutions in 14 countries.
Funding
Abstract
objectivesThe COVID-19 pandemic is unprecedented as a global crisis over the last century. How do specialist surgeons make decisions about patient care in these unprecedent times?
designBetween April and May 2020, we conducted an international qualitative study. Sarcoma surgeons from diverse global settings participated in 60 min interviews exploring surgical decision making during COVID-19. Interview data were analysed using an inductive thematic analysis approach.
settingParticipants represented public and private hospitals in 14 countries, in different phases of the first wave of the pandemic: Australia, Argentina, Canada, India, Italy, Japan, Nigeria, Singapore, Spain, South Africa, Switzerland, Turkey, UK and USA.
participantsFrom 22 invited sarcoma surgeons, 18 surgeons participated. Participants had an average of 19 years experience as a sarcoma surgeon.
results17/18 participants described a decision they had made about patient care since the start of the pandemic that was unique to them, that is, without precedence. Common to 'unique' decisions about patient care was uncertainty about what was going on and what would happen in the future (
conclusionsIn the context of rapidly changing standards of justice and beneficence in patient care, traditional decision-making frameworks may no longer apply. Based on the experiences of surgeons in this study, we describe a framework of least-worst decision making. This framework gives rise to actionable strategies that can support decision making in sarcoma and other specialised fields of surgery, both during the current crisis and beyond.
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Registered trials
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