Ethical Issues in Surgery during COVID-19 Pandemic

ABSTRACT

Surgeons were facing considerable ethical dilemma during this COVID-19 pandemic-whichpatient to select for surgery and which patient to be deferred for a later date. Surgeons also had a difficult taskof protecting themselves and their team and perform a safe surgery without infecting the patient. There were also ethical issues of using Oxygen or an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) bed during this time for the surgical patient when it was in short supply. A critical factorwas balancing the benefit of surgery for the patient against the risk of contacting the COVID-19 virus and the complications of the disease process.