Surgical Ethics Research Articles

Surgical Ethics in the Safavid Era, 16th Century AD.

Medicine-and specifically surgery and surgical ethics-have long been part of the history of science. Surgical ethics play a pivotal role in ensuring successful outcomes and maintaining the highest standards of patient care. It includes the ethics of surgeons, the responsibility of surgeons, surgical errors, and the competence of a surgeon. Many works have been written about surgery, including during Iran's Safavid period (1501 to 1736)-a period in which a surgeon needed to have a set of moral principles in addition to practical surgical skills. One of the most valuable is Dhakhīrıh Kāmılıh, written by military surgeon Hakim Mohammad in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In this work, Ḥakim Muhāmmad dedicates a chapter specifically to the topic of surgical ethics, aiming to provide moral and legal recommendations for surgeons in addition to explaining surgical techniques and methods. Some of these recommendations include improving surgical skills through observation and practical training, paying attention to hygiene to prevent the spread of infection, and giving patients hope for recovery. Dhakhīrıh Kāmılıh is a landmark text in the history of surgical ethics.

Hard-edged or hard done to? Women surgeons’ contributions to surgical ethics

How did women entering the surgical workforce transform surgical ethics and how surgeons approach patient care?

Implementing a formal curriculum on surgical ethics and palliative care for otolaryngology residents

ObjectiveResidents are faced with ethical issues every day but most residency curriculums do not routinely include formal ethics skills training. In order to address this, a comprehensive curriculum on ethics and surgical palliative care was implemented for otolaryngology residents. MethodsAn 8-h ethics didactics curriculum was designed in collaboration with our institution's Institute of Ethics. Varied strategies were used to cover basic principles and practical skills. Anonymous assessments were completed by learners at 3 points during the curriculum on a 5-point scale. ResultsNine residents were surveyed. Prior to the curriculum, a large majority of residents (85 %) expressed little to no familiarity with basic ethical principles. There was statistically significant improvement in understanding of and familiarity with bioethics topics, including the four principles of bioethics (Δ = 2.4, p = 0.004). There was also statistically significant improvement in comfort with the implementation of ethical decision making and palliative care skills, including with difficult conversations with patients (Δ = 1.3, p = 0.03). Participation in sessions was excellent with positive qualitative feedback. ConclusionAn interactive curriculum in ethics and palliative care can be engaging and practical for busy surgical residents, with measurable improvement in comfort with challenging cases and ethical, patient-centered care.

Medical Negligence with Special Reference to Act of Commission and Omission: A Narrative Review

A doctor’s failure to uphold the standards of his profession, causing the death of a patient whom the doctor hoped to save, is known as medical negligence. The most embarrassing act one can commit is medical negligence, which usually results in the patient’s death. Legally, medical negligence is a breach of the duty of care leading to harm. Lack of clinical competence can be interpreted as negligence. Indian courts decide cases of medical negligence based on the Bolam test. According to Black’s Law Dictionary, negligence is defined as “conduct, action, or omission, which may be declared as negligence without any argument or proof as it violates the dictates of common prudence”. The three cardinal elements in negligence are duty of care failure, failure to exercise duty of care (Dereliction), and causation of damage to the patient on account of dereliction. References to medical negligence can be found in classical texts such as Manusmriti, Kotilya Arthashastra, Charaka Samhita, Sushruta Samhita, and others. To mitigate medical negligence, various measures can be taken, such as improved communication, strengthening training and education, emphasising quality assurance, and legal reforms. The rapid development of medical science and technology has proven to be a powerful tool for doctors to better diagnose and treat patients, but it has also become a tool to exploit people for profit. Accurate information about negligence and its laws is needed as there is not enough data in this regard. To avoid medical negligence, practitioners should show strict adherence to modern surgical ethics, which also include concepts like the importance of informed consent, doctor-doctor relationship, doctor-patient relationship, doctor-state relationship, doctor-attendant relationship, attendantpatient relationship, and patient autonomy.

Surgical Ethics and Medicolegal Aspects - An Ayurvedic Persepective

Surgical ethics is an essential component in the practice of specting human rights and equality. “Principlism" is an approach in Bioethics which includes Autonomy, Beneficence, Non-maleficence and Justice. In the Ayurvedic classics ethical concepts are ever-present and an ethical under stream runs through all the texts. The essence of ethics is very well described in the textbooks of Ayurveda in the form of Chatushpada, Vaidya Guna, Sadvritta and Yogya. Concept of high level ethical surgical practice was there in the time of Susrutha Acharya, which is still now applicable in the era of modern surgery. This article gives a comprehensive analysis of the surgical ethics and medico legal aspects described in Ayurveda.

Controversies Regarding Mesh Utilisation and the Attitude towards the Appendix in Amyand’s Hernia—A Systematic Review

Inguinal hernia containing the vermiform appendix is a rare entity. It is more common in children than in adults. It can be discovered incidentally during the surgical intervention performed for the cure of the inguinal hernia or when the appendix shows inflammatory changes, a situation that can lead to diagnostic confusion with a number of other diseases. Imaging can guide the diagnosis, which often comes as an intraoperative surprise. The therapeutic approach is controversial both in terms of whether or not to perform an appendectomy in the case of an appendix without inflammatory changes and especially in terms of using a mesh during the hernia repair process. Since the pathology is not very frequent, there are no standardized stages in terms of surgical ethics that can guarantee good surgical practice. The study aimed to carry out a review of the specialized literature to obtain some conclusions or trends regarding the management of this pathology. The low frequency of this type of hernia did not allow the consultation of large-scale studies or extensive reviews focusing on case reports or case series communications. The obtained results were statistically analyzed and integrated in relation to the surgical attitude depending on the particularities of the condition.

Surgeon Perspectives on Daily Presentation of Ethical Dilemmas: A Qualitative Study.

Surgeons encounter and navigate a unique set of ethical dilemmas. The American College of Surgeons (ACS) previously identified 6 core ethical issues central to the practice of surgery, but there have been no reports of the true range and complexity of ethical dilemmas encountered by surgeons in their daily practice. Qualitative research is well positioned to address this question. We conducted in-depth interviews with attending surgeons across multiple surgical subspecialties at a large, urban, academic medical center asking them to describe the most common ethical dilemmas they encounter in day-to-day practice. Interviews were recorded, transcribed, and coded according to a grounded theory, inductive approach. Thirty attending surgeons were interviewed, representing twelve different general surgery subspecialties. The majority of dilemmas identified pertained to 4 of the 6 ACS identified core ethical issues: professional obligations, competition of interests, truth telling, and end-of-life care. No participants described dilemmas relating to the themes of confidentiality or surrogate decision-making. Approximately one-third of participants identified ethical issues not well characterized by the ACS core principles, most often relating to the pressure to provide care that is not medically indicated. There was strong support for a formalized surgical ethics curriculum. Although the ACS-defined core ethical issues in surgery appropriately captured many ethical dilemmas identified by participants, surgeons described several scenarios not well characterized by these themes. A dedicated surgical ethics curriculum may help to better equip surgeons to navigate the ethical dilemmas they are likely to face in practice.

Operating Ethically: A Review of Surgical Ethics in Pakistan and Recommendations for the Way Forward

Operating Ethically: A Review of Surgical Ethics in Pakistan and Recommendations for the Way Forward

Do we know what we are talking about? Measuring resident and faculty surgical ethics competency

Do we know what we are talking about? Measuring resident and faculty surgical ethics competency

Ethical issues in the operating room: A scoping review.

For the patients receiving care in the operating room, it emphasizes that the ethical behavior and attitude of health professionals should be aligned with patients' basic human rights. Surgical ethics may provide an ethical alternative in a specific operating room context. However, it is unclear how actively research is being conducted in this regard. This study determines the direction of future research by identifying ethical issues experienced in the operating room. This scoping review is based on the methodological framework suggested by Arksey and O'Malley in 2005. PubMed, CINAHL, EMBASE, WOS, Cochrane, KISS, and KMbase databases were searched from January 2012 to May 2022. Two researchers independently screened the searched articles by reviewing the titles, abstracts, and full texts. Consequently, 19 studies were selected. Five categories were identified: Professional ethics, Organizational ethics, Patients' rights, Patient safety, and Allocating resources. The derived categories covered all the same content as the International Council of Nurses' (ICN) code of ethics, with the exception of one element, that is, global health. This study highlights ethical issues in the operating theatre and emphasizes the need for individual and organizational strategies aligned with the ICN code of ethics. Future research should cover a wider range of issues, employ diverse perspectives and methodologies, and enhance ethical practices to improve understanding and ethical practices in the field.

Surgical Ethics Training: Educational and Professional Opportunities.

Surgical Ethics Training: Educational and Professional Opportunities.

Determining Critical Topics for Undergraduate Surgical Education in Rwanda: Results of a Modified Delphi Process and a Consensus Conference.

Background Developing a contextually appropriate curriculum is critical to train physicians who can address surgical challenges in sub-Saharan Africa. An innovative modified Delphi process was used to identify contextually optimized curricular content to meet sub-Saharan Africa and Rwanda's surgical needs. Methods Participants were surgeons from East, Central, Southern, and West Africaand general practitioners with surgical experience. Delphi participants excluded or prioritized surgical topic areas generated from extensive grey and formal literature review. Surgical educators first screened and condensed identified topics. Round 1 screened and prioritized identified topics, with a 75% consensus cut-off based on the content validity index and a prioritization score. Topics that reached consensus were screened again in round 2 and re-prioritized, following controlled feedback. Frequencies for aggregate prioritization scores, experts in agreement, item-level content validity index, universal agreementand scale-level content validity index based on the average method (S-CVI/Ave) using proportion relevance, and intra-class correlation (ICC) (based on a mean-rating, consistency, two-way mixed-effects model) were performed. We also used arithmetic mean values and modal frequency. Cronbach's Alpha was also calculated to ascertain reliability. Results were validated through a multi-institution consensus conference attended by Rwanda-based surgical specialists, general practitioners, medical students, surgical educators, and surgical association representatives using an inclusive, participatory, collaborative, agreement-seeking, and cooperative, a priori consensus decision-making model. Results Two-hundred and sixty-seven broad surgical content areas were identified through the initial round and presented to experts. In round 2, a total of 247 (92%) content areas reached 75% consensus among31 experts. Topics that did not achieve consensus consisted broadly of small intestinal malignancies, rare hepatobiliary pathologies, and transplantation. In the final round, 99.6% of content areas reached 75% consensus among31 experts. The highest prioritization was on wound healing, fluidand electrolytemanagement, and appendicitis, followed by metabolic response, infection, preoperative preparation, antibiotics, small bowel obstruction and perforation, breast infection, acute urinary retention, testicular torsion, hemorrhoids, and surgical ethics. Overall, the consistency and average agreement between panel experts was strong. ICCwas 0.856 (95% CI: 0.83-0.87). Cronbach's Alpha for round 2 was very strong (0.985, 95% CI: 0.976-0.991) and higher than round 1, demonstrating strong reliability. All 246 topics from round 4 were verbally accepted by 40 participants in open forum discussions during the consensus conference. Conclusions A modified Delphi process and consensus were able to identify essential topics to be included within a highly contextualized, locally driven surgical clerkship curriculum delivered in rural Rwanda. Other contexts can use similar processes to develop relevant curricula.

Surgeon Perspectives on Ethical Dilemmas: The Importance of a National Surgical Ethics Curriculum.

Surgeon Perspectives on Ethical Dilemmas: The Importance of a National Surgical Ethics Curriculum.

Shedding Light on the Hidden Curriculum: A Systematic Review of Ethics Education during General Surgery and Subspecialty Training

Ethics education in surgical residencies is often delivered in an informal and nonstructured manner as part of a "hidden curriculum", leading to few residencies routinely including it in their core curriculum. This systematic review aimed to summarize the delivery modes, curriculum, structure, and effectiveness of ethics educational interventions for surgical trainees. We performed a comprehensive database search including MEDLINE, Embase, Scopus and CENTRAL to search for articles describing the implementation of ethics educational interventions for general surgery or subspecialty trainees. A total of 14 studies were included. Only 2 centers performed targeted needs assessment. Curricula covered included informed consent, the doctor-patient relationship, breaking bad news, decision-making, end-of-life care, conflicts of interest, considering patients' personal contexts, and surgical research ethics. Modes of delivery varied across studies, including case-based learning, group discussions, didactic lectures, reading material, role-playing, simulated patients, and ethics morbidity and mortality (M&M) meetings. Evaluations were most commonly via surveys exploring knowledge and self-reported confidence, with only 3 studies measuring actual trainee performance using objective structured clinical examinations. In general, the educational interventions increased trainees' confidence/preparedness in handling ethical dilemmas. We recommend comprehensive local needs assessment to guide curricular development and designing specific learning objectives and measurable milestones to ensure evaluation. Educational interventions are best delivered in a graduated manner with the complexity of the topic mirroring residents' real-life clinical responsibilities and experiences. Teaching modalities should be tailored according to the nature of the curricular content being taught to make the learning experience more interactive and effective.

Surgical mortality in patients in extremis: futility in emergency abdominal surgery

BackgroundThe number of older patients with multiple comorbidities in the emergency service is increasingly frequent, which implies the risk of incurring in futile surgical interventions. Some interventions generate false expectations of survival or quality of life in patients and families and represent a negligible therapeutic benefit in patients whose chances of survival are minimal. In order to address this dilemma, we describe mortality in a cohort of patients undergoing emergency laparotomy with a risk ≥ 75% per the ACS NSQIP Surgical Risk Calculator.MethodsA retrospective observational study was designed to analyze postoperative mortality and factors associated with postoperative mortality in a cohort of patients undergoing emergency laparotomy between January 2018 and December 2021 in a high-complexity hospital who had a mortality risk ≥ 75% per the ACS NSQIP Surgical Risk Calculator.ResultsA total of 890 emergency laparotomies were performed during the study period, and 50 patients were included for the analysis. Patient median age was 82.5 (IQR: 18.25) years old and 33 (66.00%) were male. The most frequent diagnoses were mesenteric ischemia 21 (42%) and secondary peritonitis 18 (36%). Mortality in the series was 92%. Twenty-four (54.34%) died within the first 24 h of the postoperative period; 11 (23.91%) within 72 h and 10 (21.73%) within 30 days. APACHE II and SOFA scores were statistically significantly higher in patients who died.ConclusionsAll available tools should be used to make decisions, with the most reliable and objective information possible, and be particularly vigilant in patients at extreme risk (mortality risk greater than 75% according to ACS NSQIP Surgical Risk Calculator) to avoid futility and its consequences. The available information should be shared with the patient, the family, or their guardians through an assertive and empathetic communication strategy. It is necessary to insist on a culture of surgical ethics based on reflection and continuous improvement in patient care and to know how to accompany them in order to have a proper death.

Health-related quality of life and anxiety levels among patients under surveillance for intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasm

BackgroundBecause of the premalignant nature of intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasms (IPMNs), patients should undergo surveillance as long as they remain fit for surgery. This surveillance, with imaging and laboratory tests every 6 to 12 months, is expensive and may psychologically burden patients. This study aimed to determine the effects of IPMN surveillance on patients´ health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and anxiety levels.MethodsWe included a random subgroup of all IPMN patients undergoing a follow-up check-up at Helsinki University Hospital (HUH) between August 2017 and November 2018. Patients were asked to complete the 15D HRQoL and state-trait anxiety inventory (STAI) questionnaires just before and three months after an IPMN control.ResultsAmong 899 patients in IPMN follow-up, 232 participated. The 15D HRQoL results showed differences in some IPMN patients’ 15 analyzed dimensions compared to a sex- and age-standardized general population cohort, but the clinical relevance of these differences appear doubtful. We detected no significant difference in the anxiety levels determined using the STAI questionnaires before or three months after the IPMN control.ConclusionSurveillance should be less harmful than the risk of disease. Among our patients, the recommended IPMN follow-up carried minimal negative impact on patients’ HRQoL or anxiety levels. This result is important, because the number of patients under IPMN surveillance is rapidly increasing and the cancer risk among the majority of these patients remains small.Trial registration: The Surgical Ethics Committee of Helsinki University Hospital approved this study (Dnro HUS 475/2017) and it was registered at ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT03131076) before patient enrollment began.

Innovative Bariatric Procedures and Ethics in Bariatric Surgery: the IFSO Position Statement.

With the rise in obesity and bariatric procedures worldwide, there has been a surge in new and innovative procedures that has been increasingly offered to patients. In this position statement, IFSO highlights the importance of surgical ethics in innovation and when offering new procedures. Furthermore, the task force reviewed the current literature to describe which procedures can be offered as mainstreamoutside research protocols versus those that are still investigational and need further data.

In Reply: Operationalizing Global Neurosurgery Research in Neurosurgical Journals

In Reply: Operationalizing Global Neurosurgery Research in Neurosurgical Journals

Ethical Issues in Surgery

To be a good surgeon, one must be technically good and scientifically sound, but also ethical to the degree that has traditionally been demanded by our profession. In this chapter, the authors discuss what ethical problems in surgery are and how they might be approached. Respect for autonomy, nonmaleficence, beneficence, and justice define Principlism that forms the backbone of most discourse in clinical medical ethics. Consequentialism/utilitarianism, deontology, virtue ethics, “ethics of care”, and casuistry are all covered. The authors then scrutinize several contemporary problems in surgical ethics. Described and discussed in depth are issues associated with the ‘end of life’; surrogate decision making, futility, “do not resuscitate” orders in the operating room, conflicts of interest, industry payments, and surgical innovation, informed consent, and refusal of care. This review is not meant to be an exhaustive treatment of surgical ethics but a survey highlighting the most common ethical problems. This review contains 2 figures, 3 tables, and 61 references.

Ethical Issues in Surgery

To be a good surgeon, one must be technically good and scientifically sound, but also ethical to the degree that has traditionally been demanded by our profession. In this chapter, the authors discuss what ethical problems in surgery are and how they might be approached. Respect for autonomy, nonmaleficence, beneficence, and justice define Principlism that forms the backbone of most discourse in clinical medical ethics. Consequentialism/utilitarianism, deontology, virtue ethics, “ethics of care”, and casuistry are all covered. The authors then scrutinize several contemporary problems in surgical ethics. Described and discussed in depth are issues associated with the ‘end of life’; surrogate decision making, futility, “do not resuscitate” orders in the operating room, conflicts of interest, industry payments, and surgical innovation, informed consent, and refusal of care. This review is not meant to be an exhaustive treatment of surgical ethics but a survey highlighting the most common ethical problems. This review contains 2 figures, 3 tables, and 61 references.