ArticleSurgical endoscopy2026
Operating under pressure: a scoping review of the effects of climate change on general surgery.
Article in Surgical endoscopy, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
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Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
19 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
introductionClimate change adversely impacts human health; however, its effect on surgical diseases remains poorly understood. We conducted a scoping review to elucidate the current understanding of climate change's role in general surgical care and care delivery.
methodsA comprehensive search of Medline, Embase, Cochrane, and CINAHL was supplemented by manual searches. Broad terms for climate change in general surgery and its subspecialties were used. Climate-related effects were defined as daily or seasonal temperature anomalies and extreme weather events (e.g., hurricanes, floods, wildfires). Full-text articles were reviewed for relevance to treatment of surgical diseases, postoperative outcomes, and access to surgical care attributable to climate change. Thematic analysis identified recurring themes among included studies.
resultsOf 5110 studies, 28 met inclusion criteria. Three themes were identified: access to surgical care, shifts in surgical disease burden, and postoperative outcomes. Five studies described decreased access to care following extreme weather events, including one reporting increased breast cancer mortality after Hurricane Katrina. Eleven studies highlighted shifts in surgical disease patterns. Temperature anomalies correlated with higher rates of traumatic injuries, skin and soft tissue infections, and complicated appendicitis. Extreme weather events were associated with increased surgical trauma and emergency case volume. Five articles found temperature anomalies associated with higher postoperative surgical site infection rates, while two did not. Four articles examined outcomes after extreme weather events, including one associating wildfire smoke exposure with worse overall survival after lung resection and another identifying longer hospital stays in wildfire-exposed facilities.
conclusionHigh-level evidence regarding climate change's impact on general surgery remains limited. Emerging evidence suggests that extreme weather events and temperature fluctuations may increase demand for surgical services, disrupt timely access to treatment, and worsen postoperative outcomes. These effects may further strain healthcare systems and resources, requiring targeted mitigation and future research in this important evolving field.
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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.