Evidence map›Paper›PMID 35417627›Full record

ArticleBJU international2022

Litigation in the management of urinary stone disease.

Bingyuan Yang, Louise Goldsmith, Ben Turney, John Reynard

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in BJU international, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

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.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed.

  1. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors.

Bingyuan YangNuffield Department of Surgical Sciences, John Radcliffe Hospital, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.ORCID 0000-0003-0536-3022
Louise GoldsmithDepartment of Urology, Charing Cross Hospital, London, UK.
Ben TurneyNuffield Department of Surgical Sciences, John Radcliffe Hospital, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
John ReynardDepartment of Urology, Churchill Hospital, Oxford, UK.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

objectiveTo present common technical and non-technical issues leading to medicolegal litigation, illustrated by a series of 54 cases, with the aim of using these examples to prevent harm to patients and to prevent surgeons from having to experience the stress of litigation.

methodsA series of 78 medicolegal litigation cases reviewed by a single expert witness over 13 years from 2008 to 2021 was analysed by two reviewers. Twenty-nine cases were identified as having a non-technical learning point and 25 were identified as having a technical learning point. These are discussed using illustrative examples and the steps that could have avoided these issues are considered.

resultsAll major issues and themes are illustrated with cases demonstrating the errors that lead to litigation and the often-simple steps that can be taken to avoid them. Out of 29 non-technical issues, 13 involved consent issues (45%), eight involved delays in treatment (28%) and eight involved failure to provide adequate safeguarding advice (28%). Out of 25 technical issues, 13 cases involved intra-operative problems (52%) including nine ureteric injuries, eight involved errors or omissions in the immediate preoperative period (32%) and four resulted from decisions around emergency decompression of the obstructed infected kidney. These emergency cases featured complications of amputation (two out of four) and death (one out of four). These decisions are complex and there are many subtleties to these cases, which are discussed in detail.

conclusionWe hope that this case series highlights the potentially catastrophic outcomes of even small errors of judgement, and allows careful stone surgeons to learn from the experiences of those unfortunate others without having to encounter these situations themselves.

Indexed as

MalpracticeSurgeonsUrinary CalculiAmputation, SurgicalHumansconsent#EndoUrology#KidneyStoneslitigationmedicolegalobstructed infected kidneysafety#UroStone#UroUTI

Identifiers

PMID35417627
PMCPMC9543453

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.