TY - JOUR
T1 - Restarting Orthopaedic Care in a Pandemic
T2 - Ethical Framework and Case Examples
AU - Humbyrd, Casey Jo
AU - Dunham, Alexandra M.
AU - Xu, Amy L.
AU - Rieder, Travis N.
N1 - Funding Information:
This study was supported by the National Institutes of Health (grant T32 AR067708 to A.M.D.).
Publisher Copyright:
© American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons.
PY - 2021/1/15
Y1 - 2021/1/15
N2 - The question about how to resume typical orthopaedic care during a pandemic, such as coronavirus disease 2019, should be framed not only as a logistic or safety question but also as an ethical question. The current published guidelines from surgical societies do not explicitly address ethical dilemmas, such as why public health ethics requires a cessation of nonemergency surgery or how to fairly allocate limited resources for delayed surgical care. We propose ethical guidance for the resumption of care on the basis of public health ethics with a focus on clinical equipoise, triage tiers, and flexibility. We then provide orthopaedic surgery examples to guide physicians in the ethical resumption of care.
AB - The question about how to resume typical orthopaedic care during a pandemic, such as coronavirus disease 2019, should be framed not only as a logistic or safety question but also as an ethical question. The current published guidelines from surgical societies do not explicitly address ethical dilemmas, such as why public health ethics requires a cessation of nonemergency surgery or how to fairly allocate limited resources for delayed surgical care. We propose ethical guidance for the resumption of care on the basis of public health ethics with a focus on clinical equipoise, triage tiers, and flexibility. We then provide orthopaedic surgery examples to guide physicians in the ethical resumption of care.
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U2 - 10.5435/JAAOS-D-20-00871
DO - 10.5435/JAAOS-D-20-00871
M3 - Review article
C2 - 33156215
AN - SCOPUS:85099427212
SN - 1067-151X
VL - 29
SP - E72-E78
JO - Journal of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons
JF - Journal of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons
IS - 2
ER -