ArticleCureus2021
Medico-Legal Analysis of General Surgery Cases in Greece: A 48 Year Study.
Article in Cureus, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Introduction Surgery can be dangerous not only for patients, but it also carries a risk for the surgeon in case of medical error, which can affect their future medical career. The purpose of our research is to assess the current situation regarding medical liability in General Surgery in Greece, the reasons for the allegations of medical malpractice as well as the relationship between these issues and the court results. Methods Published court decisions of criminal, civil, administrative and disciplinary content were searched in legal information banks, between year 1973 and 2020. Court decisions were analyzed by an expert, a specialist general surgeon and an anesthesiologist, for the causes of death and the correctness of the court decision in collaboration with the lawyers of the investigation. Results 588 court decisions were retrieved, out if which 103 (17.751%) criminal (n = 81), or civil and administrative decisions (n = 22) for surgeons. Out of a total of 81 first and second instance criminal cases and appellate court decisions of the Supreme Court, 27 cases concerned negligent homicide, 16 cases concerned negligent bodily harm and seven were acquittals. Out of 22 civil cases decisions, awarding or not awarding compensation, three cases concerned negligent homicide, seven bodily harm and two were acquittals. 11 cases of negligent homicide concerned laparoscopic and bariatric surgical procedures. Conclusions Laparoscopic surgery represents one of the most important surgical developments in the last 30 years. However, they represent a great proportion of the cases concerning medical malpractice in the greek legal system. It is important to have a national center for reporting misdiagnosis and complications and a medical liability system that will facilitate improved diagnosis, learning from diagnostic errors and delays in diagnosis, in order to avoid similar cases of malpractice in the future.
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