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Analysis of medical malpractice litigation following vertebral augmentation therapy in China from 2008 to 2018

The first case of vertebral augmentation therapy in mainland China was reported in 2000. Since then, it has been widely used in China as a minimally invasive procedure to treat vertebral compression fractures. However, the characteristics of malpractice litigation involving vertebral augmentation th...

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Autores principales: Hu, Dong, Liu, Huawei, Yuan, Bei, Gu, Suxi, Xu, Kai, Song, Fei, Xiao, Songhua
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9575726/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36254049
http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/MD.0000000000030972
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author Hu, Dong
Liu, Huawei
Yuan, Bei
Gu, Suxi
Xu, Kai
Song, Fei
Xiao, Songhua
author_facet Hu, Dong
Liu, Huawei
Yuan, Bei
Gu, Suxi
Xu, Kai
Song, Fei
Xiao, Songhua
author_sort Hu, Dong
collection PubMed
description The first case of vertebral augmentation therapy in mainland China was reported in 2000. Since then, it has been widely used in China as a minimally invasive procedure to treat vertebral compression fractures. However, the characteristics of malpractice litigation involving vertebral augmentation therapy remains unclear. This study aims to analyze the characteristics of medical malpractice litigation involving vertebral augmentation therapy in mainland China for the past 10 years. Two online legal databases were queried for court verdicts involving vertebral augmentation therapy from Jan 2009 to Dec 2018 in mainland China. Each case file was then thoroughly reviewed and data pertaining to defendants, plaintiffs, case outcomes, allegations, and verdicts were abstracted, and descriptive analyses were performed. Level of evidence: LEVEL III. A total of 96 cases were enrolled for final analysis. The number of claims increased by five times during the past 10 years. More than two thirds (67.7%, n = 65) of the cases underwent percutaneous vertebroplasty, and 22.9% (n = 22) underwent percutaneous kyphoplasty, the rest (9.4%, n = 9) remained undefined. Paralysis was alleged in 35.4% of cases (n = 34), followed by significant physical injury (34.4%, n = 33). Cement leakage to spinal canal (44.8%, n = 43) is the most commonly cited reason for litigation, followed by incomplete informed consent (42.7%, n = 41), accidental dural puncture (20.8%, n = 20), unsatisfactory clinical outcome (18.8%, n = 18), and misdiagnosis (12.5%, n = 12). Acute pulmonary cement embolism (4.2%, n = 4), wrong-level vertebrae procedure (3.1%, n = 3) and postoperative infection (2.1%, n = 2) were less common causes for concern. Doctors successfully defended themselves only in 8 (8.3%) cases, which resulted in no indemnity payment. The rest 88 (91.7%) cases were closed with a mean verdict payout of 361,580 Yuan (51,654 US dollars). There is a quickly rising trend in the number of medical malpractice litigation involving vertebral augmentation therapy in China. Identifying the most common reasons for litigation and summarizing their characteristics may help decrease litigation rate and improve the patient experience.
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spelling pubmed-95757262022-10-17 Analysis of medical malpractice litigation following vertebral augmentation therapy in China from 2008 to 2018 Hu, Dong Liu, Huawei Yuan, Bei Gu, Suxi Xu, Kai Song, Fei Xiao, Songhua Medicine (Baltimore) Research Article The first case of vertebral augmentation therapy in mainland China was reported in 2000. Since then, it has been widely used in China as a minimally invasive procedure to treat vertebral compression fractures. However, the characteristics of malpractice litigation involving vertebral augmentation therapy remains unclear. This study aims to analyze the characteristics of medical malpractice litigation involving vertebral augmentation therapy in mainland China for the past 10 years. Two online legal databases were queried for court verdicts involving vertebral augmentation therapy from Jan 2009 to Dec 2018 in mainland China. Each case file was then thoroughly reviewed and data pertaining to defendants, plaintiffs, case outcomes, allegations, and verdicts were abstracted, and descriptive analyses were performed. Level of evidence: LEVEL III. A total of 96 cases were enrolled for final analysis. The number of claims increased by five times during the past 10 years. More than two thirds (67.7%, n = 65) of the cases underwent percutaneous vertebroplasty, and 22.9% (n = 22) underwent percutaneous kyphoplasty, the rest (9.4%, n = 9) remained undefined. Paralysis was alleged in 35.4% of cases (n = 34), followed by significant physical injury (34.4%, n = 33). Cement leakage to spinal canal (44.8%, n = 43) is the most commonly cited reason for litigation, followed by incomplete informed consent (42.7%, n = 41), accidental dural puncture (20.8%, n = 20), unsatisfactory clinical outcome (18.8%, n = 18), and misdiagnosis (12.5%, n = 12). Acute pulmonary cement embolism (4.2%, n = 4), wrong-level vertebrae procedure (3.1%, n = 3) and postoperative infection (2.1%, n = 2) were less common causes for concern. Doctors successfully defended themselves only in 8 (8.3%) cases, which resulted in no indemnity payment. The rest 88 (91.7%) cases were closed with a mean verdict payout of 361,580 Yuan (51,654 US dollars). There is a quickly rising trend in the number of medical malpractice litigation involving vertebral augmentation therapy in China. Identifying the most common reasons for litigation and summarizing their characteristics may help decrease litigation rate and improve the patient experience. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins 2022-10-14 /pmc/articles/PMC9575726/ /pubmed/36254049 http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/MD.0000000000030972 Text en Copyright © 2022 the Author(s). Published by Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 (CCBY) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Hu, Dong
Liu, Huawei
Yuan, Bei
Gu, Suxi
Xu, Kai
Song, Fei
Xiao, Songhua
Analysis of medical malpractice litigation following vertebral augmentation therapy in China from 2008 to 2018
title Analysis of medical malpractice litigation following vertebral augmentation therapy in China from 2008 to 2018
title_full Analysis of medical malpractice litigation following vertebral augmentation therapy in China from 2008 to 2018
title_fullStr Analysis of medical malpractice litigation following vertebral augmentation therapy in China from 2008 to 2018
title_full_unstemmed Analysis of medical malpractice litigation following vertebral augmentation therapy in China from 2008 to 2018
title_short Analysis of medical malpractice litigation following vertebral augmentation therapy in China from 2008 to 2018
title_sort analysis of medical malpractice litigation following vertebral augmentation therapy in china from 2008 to 2018
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9575726/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36254049
http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/MD.0000000000030972
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