Preparing youth with cancer for amputation: A systematic review

Children and adolescents who require limb amputation as part of cancer treatment face many physical and emotional challenges. Preparatory interventions may serve to facilitate positive coping and improve long-term adjustment during pediatric cancer treatment, including decreasing anxiety and postoperative distress. This review aimed to examine and identify the type and degree of psychosocial preparation provided to the child with cancer and family prior to amputation. Electronic databases including Embase, PubMed, and PsycINFO were searched for relevant research articles. Five studies were identified that satisfied inclusion criteria and revealed common themes for preparatory interventions, but results were limited by a lack of empirical approaches and revealed little consensus on pre-operative support prior to amputation. These findings demonstrate that there is a lack of studies to date that have adequately addressed psychosocial preparation prior to amputation for pediatric oncology patients. Future research on preparatory interventions is needed using prospective and quantitative research to establish evidence-based recommendations for interventions to support this vulnerable population.