Review on bioethical aspects in triage decisions in the intensive care unit during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic caused an increase in patients referred to Intensive Care Units (ICU). The application of triage algorithms caused ethical dilemmas when it was necessary to decide on the clinical management and/or treatment of patients.

Objectives: To analyze the main bioethical aspects involved in the algorithms used in triage decision-making in the ICU during the COVID-19 pandemic based on a review of the literature published in the period comprehended from July 2020 to February 2021.

Methods: A search was conducted in Pubmed, Scielo, Ovid and Cochrane with the search terms in English and Spanish: “triage,” “Covid,” “SARS Cov-2”, “intensive care unit”, “ethics”. Articles that did not mention intervention algorithms in the ICU, which do not analyze decision-making, which do not involve the clinical setting, which were not indexed, or repeated articles were excluded.

Results: 45 articles were obtained: Two authors independently reviewed the abstracts to eliminate bias, selecting 12 articles that met the selection criteria. It was found that the main ethical aspects that were considered were: unavoidable prioritization, justice, and support for the role of clinical judgment, taking personal rights into account.

Conclusions: It is necessary to make bioethical adjustments to standardize the universalization of decision-making at times when the capacity of health services is exceeded.