Evidence map›Paper›PMID 39493415›Full record

ArticleLancet regional health. Americas2024

Examining the surgical backlog due to COVID-19 in Latin America and the Caribbean: insights from a scoping review.

Letícia Nunes Campos, Mayte Bryce-Alberti, Ayla Gerk, Sarah K Hill, Chrystal Calderon, Mehreen Zaigham, Diana D Del Valle, Carol Mita, Sabrina Juran, Júlia Loyola Ferreira and 1 more

Abstract readScoping Review
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in Lancet regional health. Americas, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1citing 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

1 citing paper in PubMed.

  1. Article
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

11 authors.

Letícia Nunes CamposProgram in Global Surgery and Social Change, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
Mayte Bryce-AlbertiProgram in Global Surgery and Social Change, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
Ayla GerkProgram in Global Surgery and Social Change, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
Sarah K HillProgram in Global Surgery and Social Change, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
Chrystal CalderonUniversity of the West Indies, St Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago.
Mehreen ZaighamProgram in Global Surgery and Social Change, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
Diana D Del ValleProgram in Global Surgery and Social Change, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
Carol MitaCountway Library, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
Sabrina JuranProgram in Global Surgery and Social Change, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
Júlia Loyola FerreiraFaculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Tarsicio Uribe-LeitzProgram in Global Surgery and Social Change, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

This scoping review assessed the surgical backlog in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) due to COVID-19 and identified mitigation strategies. We searched seven databases for citations from December 2019 to December 2022, focusing on LAC patients with cancelled or postponed procedures. We registered our protocol at Open Science Framework (https://osf.io/x2nd8) and adhered to PRISMA-ScR guidelines. We included 83 citations covering 23 LAC countries and 19 surgical specialities, with Brazil (67%, 56/83) and transplant surgery (24%, 20/83) being the most documented. Surgical backlogs were mainly reported at the hospital (44%, 37/83) and national levels (38%, 32/83). We identified 58 citations that reported a total of 42 strategies to mitigate the backlog, the most cited being establishing prioritisation criteria for surgical cases (41%, 24/58). Our findings highlight challenges across differing healthcare systems in LAC, including disparities in data availability, surgical capacity, and resource allocation. For instance, while countries like Brazil had extensive data on national surgical backlogs, others lacked comprehensive national-level data. Our review can help inform policymakers and healthcare stakeholders to implement targeted interventions to prepare LAC-based surgical systems for future health emergencies.

Indexed as

COVID-19Global burden of diseaseHealth equityHealth policyOperativePandemic preparednessSurgical procedures

Identifiers

PMID39493415
PMCPMC11530758

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY-NC-ND
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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.