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Photography as the Sole Means of Proof: Medical Liability in Dermatology

Malignant melanoma is a cutaneous malignancy resulting from the uncontrolled proliferation of melanocytes and poses a challenge diagnostically because neoplastic lesions can mimic benign lesions, which are much more common in the population. Doctors, when they suspect the presence of melanoma, arran...

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Autores principales: Marrone, Maricla, Caterino, Cristina, Musci, Gianluca, Cazzato, Gerardo, Ingravallo, Giuseppe, Lupo, Carmelo, Casatta, Nadia, Stellacci, Alessandra, Armenio, Andrea
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10047858/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36980340
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/diagnostics13061033
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author Marrone, Maricla
Caterino, Cristina
Musci, Gianluca
Cazzato, Gerardo
Ingravallo, Giuseppe
Lupo, Carmelo
Casatta, Nadia
Stellacci, Alessandra
Armenio, Andrea
author_facet Marrone, Maricla
Caterino, Cristina
Musci, Gianluca
Cazzato, Gerardo
Ingravallo, Giuseppe
Lupo, Carmelo
Casatta, Nadia
Stellacci, Alessandra
Armenio, Andrea
author_sort Marrone, Maricla
collection PubMed
description Malignant melanoma is a cutaneous malignancy resulting from the uncontrolled proliferation of melanocytes and poses a challenge diagnostically because neoplastic lesions can mimic benign lesions, which are much more common in the population. Doctors, when they suspect the presence of melanoma, arrange for its removal and the performance of a histological examination to ascertain its diagnosis; in cases where the dermatoscopic examination is indicative of benignity, however, after the lesion is removed, histological examination is not always performed, a very dangerous occurrence and a harbinger of further medico-legal problems. The authors present a court litigation case of an “alleged” failure to diagnose malignant melanoma in a patient who died of brain metastases from melanoma in the absence of a certain location of the primary tumor: the physician who had removed a benign lesion a few months earlier was sued, and only thanks to the presence of photographic documentation was the health care provider able to prove his extraneousness. The aim of this paper is to formulate a proposal for a dermatological protocol to be followed in cases of excisions of benign skin lesions with a twofold purpose: on the one hand, to be able to prove, in a judicial context, the right action on the part of the sanitarians; on the other hand, to avoid the rise of so-called “defensive medicine”.
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spelling pubmed-100478582023-03-29 Photography as the Sole Means of Proof: Medical Liability in Dermatology Marrone, Maricla Caterino, Cristina Musci, Gianluca Cazzato, Gerardo Ingravallo, Giuseppe Lupo, Carmelo Casatta, Nadia Stellacci, Alessandra Armenio, Andrea Diagnostics (Basel) Interesting Images Malignant melanoma is a cutaneous malignancy resulting from the uncontrolled proliferation of melanocytes and poses a challenge diagnostically because neoplastic lesions can mimic benign lesions, which are much more common in the population. Doctors, when they suspect the presence of melanoma, arrange for its removal and the performance of a histological examination to ascertain its diagnosis; in cases where the dermatoscopic examination is indicative of benignity, however, after the lesion is removed, histological examination is not always performed, a very dangerous occurrence and a harbinger of further medico-legal problems. The authors present a court litigation case of an “alleged” failure to diagnose malignant melanoma in a patient who died of brain metastases from melanoma in the absence of a certain location of the primary tumor: the physician who had removed a benign lesion a few months earlier was sued, and only thanks to the presence of photographic documentation was the health care provider able to prove his extraneousness. The aim of this paper is to formulate a proposal for a dermatological protocol to be followed in cases of excisions of benign skin lesions with a twofold purpose: on the one hand, to be able to prove, in a judicial context, the right action on the part of the sanitarians; on the other hand, to avoid the rise of so-called “defensive medicine”. MDPI 2023-03-08 /pmc/articles/PMC10047858/ /pubmed/36980340 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/diagnostics13061033 Text en © 2023 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Interesting Images
Marrone, Maricla
Caterino, Cristina
Musci, Gianluca
Cazzato, Gerardo
Ingravallo, Giuseppe
Lupo, Carmelo
Casatta, Nadia
Stellacci, Alessandra
Armenio, Andrea
Photography as the Sole Means of Proof: Medical Liability in Dermatology
title Photography as the Sole Means of Proof: Medical Liability in Dermatology
title_full Photography as the Sole Means of Proof: Medical Liability in Dermatology
title_fullStr Photography as the Sole Means of Proof: Medical Liability in Dermatology
title_full_unstemmed Photography as the Sole Means of Proof: Medical Liability in Dermatology
title_short Photography as the Sole Means of Proof: Medical Liability in Dermatology
title_sort photography as the sole means of proof: medical liability in dermatology
topic Interesting Images
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10047858/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36980340
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/diagnostics13061033
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