Why Do Vascular Surgeons Get Sued? Analysis of Claims and Outcomes in Malpractice Litigation

Phair, John P.; Trestman, Eric B.; Skripochnik, Edvard; Lipsitz, Evan C.; Koleilat, Issam; Scher, Larry A.

doi:10.1016/j.avsg.2018.02.024

Cited by 22 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 2 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…15 For vascular surgeons, aortic interventions account for approximately 11% of procedures leading to litigations. 16 Previous reviews have focused on litigation in relation to various topics in vascular surgery [17][18][19][20] and other areas of medicine, 12,21 but malpractice claims in aortic aneurysms and dissections have not been extensively analyzed thus far.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Review of Malpractice Lawsuits in the Diagnosis and Management of Aortic Aneurysms and Aortic Dissections

Choinski

Sanon

Tadros

et al. 2021

Vasc Endovascular Surg

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Objective: Aortic aneurysms and dissections are prevalent causes of morbidity and mortality. The management of aortic pathologies may be called into question in malpractice suits. Malpractice claims were analyzed to understand common reasons for litigation, medical specialties involved, patient injuries, and outcomes. Methods: Litigation cases in the Westlaw database from September 1st, 1987 to October 23 rd, 2019 were analyzed. Search terms included “aortic aneurysm” and “aortic dissection.” Data on plaintiff, defendant, litigation claims, patient injuries, misdiagnoses, and case outcomes were collected and compared for aortic aneurysms, aortic dissections, and overall cases. Results: A total of 346 cases were identified, 196 involving aortic aneurysms and 150 aortic dissections. Physician defendants were emergency medicine (29%), cardiology (20%), internal medicine (14%), radiology (11%), cardiothoracic (10%) and vascular surgery (10%). Litigation claims included “failure to diagnose and treat” (61%), “delayed diagnosis and treatment” (21%), “post-operative complications after open repair” (10%) and “negligent post-operative care” (10%). Patients with aneurysms presented with abdominal (63%) and back pain (37%), while dissections presented with chest pain (78%), abdominal pain (15%), and shortness of breath (14%). Misdiagnoses included gastrointestinal (12%), other cardiovascular (9%), and musculoskeletal conditions (9%), but many were not specified (58%). Overall, 83% of cases were wrongful death suits. Injuries included loss of consortium (23%), emotional distress (19%), and bleeding (17%). In 53% of the cases, the jury ruled in favor of the defendant. 25% of cases ruled for the plaintiff. 22% of cases resulted in a settlement. The mean rewarded for each case was $1,644,590.66 (SD: $5,939,134.58; Range: $17,500-$68,035,462). Conclusion: For aortic pathologies, post-operative complications were not prominent among the reasons why suits were brought forth. This suggests improvements in education across all involved medical specialties may allow for improved diagnostic accuracy and efficient treatment, which could then translate to a decrease in associated litigation cases.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Review of Malpractice Lawsuits in the Diagnosis and Management of Aortic Aneurysms and Aortic Dissections

Choinski

Sanon

Tadros

et al. 2021

Vasc Endovascular Surg

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…9,10 Overall, aortic pathology is the cause for litigation in about 11% of malpractice claims in the US and 6% of claims in the UK; most followed open repair, similar to our study. 6,[11][12][13] The Physician Insurers Association of American medical professional liability (MPL) claims also notes that litigation secondary to aneurysms/dissections are infrequent (the 10 th most common diagnosis in their analysis of malpractice in cardiovascular medicine between 1985 and 2007). However, it resulted in a higher percentage of paid claims and the highest average indemnity paid amongst other diagnoses, similar to our study.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Analysis of Malpractice Litigation of Vascular Surgeons in Cases Involving Aortic Pathologies

Sen

Choudhry

Cherukuri

et al. 2022

Vasc Endovascular Surg

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Objective The aim of this study was to analyze malpractice claims for aortic pathologies and to assess if there has been a change in rate of malpractice lawsuits with evolution of endovascular therapy. Methods Malpractice lawsuits were individually screened and compiled from the Westlaw database from 2000 to 2017 through use of relevant search terms. Data were collected of allegations, diagnoses, and outcomes of each case and compared. Results 268 unique cases were included in this study, with aneurysms (54%, n = 145) and dissection (35%, n = 94) making up the majority. There was a defendant verdict in 53% (n = 141), plaintiff verdict in 24% (n = 65), and settlements in 23% (n = 62) of lawsuits. Litigation was higher in the Midwest and Northeast. There was a gradual decline in litigation overall, however endovascular case numbers remained constant. There was negligible difference in the primary allegation underlying the litigation for various aortic pathologies, time to litigation and award between open and endovascular procedures. Conclusion The proportion of litigation for clinical negligence in endovascular cases amongst all vascular surgical lawsuits is increasing. As novel methods of endovascular therapy emerge, it is imperative that physicians remain vigilant to legal considerations to minimize malpractice risk.

show abstract

“…It is an electronic database with access to over 40,000 smaller legal databases that consist of court documents 7 . It has been utilized in medical malpractice analyses in other contexts, including ophthalmology, neurosurgery, orthopedic surgery, vascular surgery, and liver transplantation 8–12 . Prior work in the realm of cardiothoracic surgery includes medical malpractice analyses in congenital cardiac surgery and aortic dissection 13,14 .…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…7 It has been utilized in medical malpractice analyses in other contexts, including ophthalmology, neurosurgery, orthopedic surgery, vascular surgery, and liver transplantation. [8][9][10][11][12] Prior work in the realm of cardiothoracic surgery includes medical malpractice analyses in congenital cardiac surgery and aortic dissection. 13,14 However, the Westlaw database does not include cases dropped before formal registration in the legal system, resolved outside courtrooms, or dismissed before registration.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Medical malpractice in heart transplantation from 1994 to 2019

Palaniappan

Sellke

Ehsan

2021

Journal of Cardiac Surgery

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background Heart transplantation is a unique clinical intervention because it involves two separate parties, the donor and the recipient. This increases the potential for the legal liability of heart teams involved with heart transplantation, but there is no research that exists to date that analyzes the etiology of medical malpractice litigations relating to heart transplantation. Methods The Westlaw legal database was queried for all medical malpractice litigations concerning heart transplantation from 1994 to 2019 in the United States. Individual litigations were reviewed for inclusion, resulting in 41 included cases, and then analyzed for legal and clinical data. Statistical analyses were performed with the Fisher exact test and Mann–Whitney U tests. Results The mean age of patients involved in these litigations was 38.88 years, with female patients being younger on average. Female patients received a significantly larger average award than male counterparts (p = .03). Alleged failure to diagnose was significantly associated with settlements (p = .047). An alleged failure to obtain informed consent as presented by the plaintiff was significantly associated with defendant verdicts (p = .03). Incidence of stroke and infection were each significantly associated with nondefendant verdicts (p = .02 and p = .02). Conclusions There should be an emphasis on documenting informed consent from all involved parties in heart transplantation to limit litigations filed against clinicians. As technologies and growing donor pools increase the prevalence of heart transplantation, clinicians would be well‐served to be aware of legally tenable practices that will allow them to adopt a higher transplant volume without simultaneously adopting added legal exposure.

show abstract

Why Do Vascular Surgeons Get Sued? Analysis of Claims and Outcomes in Malpractice Litigation

Cited by 22 publications

References 2 publications

Review of Malpractice Lawsuits in the Diagnosis and Management of Aortic Aneurysms and Aortic Dissections

Review of Malpractice Lawsuits in the Diagnosis and Management of Aortic Aneurysms and Aortic Dissections

An Analysis of Malpractice Litigation of Vascular Surgeons in Cases Involving Aortic Pathologies

Medical malpractice in heart transplantation from 1994 to 2019

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About