AI Article Synopsis
- The COVID-19 pandemic forces healthcare workers, including neurosurgeons, to make tough decisions about patient treatment due to limited resources.
- This article outlines key ethical principles to guide the triage process, focusing on four main considerations: helping the worst off, maximizing overall benefits, ensuring equal treatment, and recognizing the value of certain patients based on their potential contribution.
- It serves as a toolkit for neurosurgeons from the European Association of Neurosurgical Societies, offering guidance for navigating ethical dilemmas when resources are scarce.
Article Abstract
Background: The COVID-19 pandemic confronts healthcare workers, including neurosurgeons, with difficult choices regarding which patients to treat.
Methods: In order to assist ethical triage, this article gives an overview of the main considerations and ethical principles relevant when allocating resources in times of scarcity.
Results: We discuss a framework employing four principles: prioritizing the worst off, maximizing benefits, treating patients equally, and promoting instrumental value. We furthermore discuss the role of age and comorbidity in triage and highlight some principles that may seem intuitive but should not form a basis for triage.
Conclusions: This overview is presented on behalf of the European Association of Neurosurgical Societies and can be used as a toolkit for neurosurgeons faced with ethical dilemmas when triaging patients in times of scarcity.
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Source |
|---|---|
| http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7220806 | PMC |
| http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00701-020-04375-w | DOI Listing |
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