Evidence map›Paper›PMID 38993929›Full record

ArticleFrontiers in transplantation2023

Treating the dead; how far ought medicine go to obtain transplantable organs?

Joshua D Bernstock, Joshua I Chalif, Rohan Jha, Ashley Brown, Walid I Essayed, Arthur Caplan, Pierpaolo Peruzzi

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Frontiers in transplantation, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
0citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from 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.

2 · The registry

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.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

0 citing papers in PubMed.

No citing paper in PubMed yet.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

7 authors.

Joshua D Bernstock *Department of Neurosurgery, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States.
Joshua I Chalif *Department of Neurosurgery, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States.
Rohan Jha *Department of Neurosurgery, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States.
Ashley BrownDepartment of Neurosurgery, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States.
Walid I EssayedDepartment of Neurosurgery, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States.
Arthur CaplanDivision of Medical Ethics, Grossman School of Medicine, New York University, New York, NY, United States.
Pierpaolo PeruzziDepartment of Neurosurgery, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Under what circumstances, is it ethical to perform tumor surgery on a brain-dead individual? The neurosurgeons at Brigham and Women's Hospital were recently faced with such a question when asked to operate on a 28-year-old man who was pronounced brain-dead secondary to a severe brain-stem injury. His advanced directives clearly documented a desire for organ donation. During his transplant work-up, cranial imaging suggested a possible cerebellar mass of unknown etiology that was concerning for metastatic disease. Despite negative full body imaging, the neurosurgical team was asked to perform an open biopsy of the intracranial lesion to rule out occult systemic cancer. This case invites many nuanced questions related to the decisions surgeons and the broader medical community must make in the face of pursuing viable organs for the many in need. What is the moral standing and personhood eligibility of brain-dead individuals? What is the scope of medical interventions and procedures that surgeons are ethically bound to carry out? How ought the desire for increased medical intervention to try to save organs be balanced with practical limitations given limited medical resources?

Indexed as

brain deathethicsmedical resource utilizationorgan donationtransplantation

Identifiers

PMID38993929
PMCPMC11235357

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

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.