SynthesisBMC palliative care2023
Physicians' attitudes and experiences about withholding/withdrawing life-sustaining treatments in pediatrics: a systematic review of quantitative evidence.
Synthesis in BMC palliative care, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT07401420 (Project Plan Physicians' Experiences of the Decision-making Process Regarding Decisions to Withhold/Discontinue Life-sustaining Treatment in Children Cared for in Intensive Care Units in Sweden. A Qualitative Study.), which is not on this map. Cited by 6 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.
Project Plan Physicians' Experiences of the Decision-making Process Regarding Decisions to Withhold/Discontinue Life-sustaining Treatment in Children Cared for in Intensive Care Units in Sweden. A Qualitative Study.
Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 18 citations in OpenAlex.
- Ethics and end-of-life in pediatric and neonatal ICUs: a systematic review of recommendations.BMC palliative care · 2025Pooled it
- "The weight of words": a phenomenological study of Chinese neonatologists' lived experiences of delivering bad news.BMC medical ethics · 2026Article
- Barriers to and Facilitators of Pediatric Palliative Care in Mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan: A Document Analysis.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- A network analysis of timing and conditions present at time of death for periviable infants (22+0-23+6 weeks) admitted to neonatal intensive care after receiving survival-focused care at birth.Frontiers in pediatrics · 2025Article
- Chinese and Belgian pediatricians' perspectives toward pediatric palliative care: an online survey.BMC palliative care · 2024Article
- Navigating the shadows: medical professionals' values and perspectives on end-of-life care within pediatric intensive care units in Croatia.Frontiers in pediatrics · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundOne of the most important and ethically challenging decisions made for children with life-limiting conditions is withholding/withdrawing life-sustaining treatments (LST). As important (co-)decision-makers in this process, physicians are expected to have deeply and broadly developed views. However, their attitudes and experiences in this area remain difficult to understand because of the diversity of the studies. Hence, the aim of this paper is to describe physicians' attitudes and experiences about withholding/withdrawing LST in pediatrics and to identify the influencing factors.
methodsWe systematically searched Pubmed, Cinahl®, Embase®, Scopus®, and Web of Science™ in early 2021 and updated the search results in late 2021. Eligible articles were published in English, reported on investigations of physicians' attitudes and experiences about withholding/withdrawing LST for children, and were quantitative.
resultsIn 23 included articles, overall, physicians stated that withholding/withdrawing LST can be ethically legitimate for children with life-limiting conditions. Physicians tended to follow parents' and parents-patient's wishes about withholding/withdrawing or continuing LST when they specified treatment preferences. Although most physicians agreed to share decision-making with parents and/or children, they nonetheless reported experiencing both negative and positive feelings during the decision-making process. Moderating factors were identified, including barriers to and facilitators of withholding/withdrawing LST. In general, there was only a limited number of quantitative studies to support the hypothesis that some factors can influence physicians' attitudes and experiences toward LST.
conclusionOverall, physicians agreed to withhold/withdraw LST in dying patients, followed parent-patients' wishes, and involved them in decision-making. Barriers and facilitators relevant to the decision-making regarding withholding/withdrawing LST were identified. Future studies should explore children's involvement in decision-making and consider barriers that hinder implementation of decisions about withholding/withdrawing LST.
Indexed as
Identifiers
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.