Original Article · Open access
Malpractice litigation after total hip arthroplasty: A legal 10-year database
- Keywords
- Arthroplasty, complications, hip, litigation, malpractice lawsuits.
Abstract
Objectives: In this study, we aimed to identify the most frequently reported claims after total hip arthroplasty (THA) and the reasons put forward by the plaintiffs.
Patients and methods: Between January 2011 and December 2020, data of a total of 74 cases (21 males, 53 females; mean age: 53.7±12.8 years; range, 29 to 83 years) obtained from the Turkish Forensic Medicine Institute were retrospectively analyzed. Claims for litigation, demographic data, data regarding the identity of the accused and the hospital setting were recorded.
Results: The most common reason for lawsuits was death (n=15; 20.3%), followed by nerve injury (n=13; 17.6%), and eight patients had more than one complaint. According to the forensic medicine reports, malpractice was detected in 10 (12.5%) of the cases. Among the hospital types, only nerve injury made a significant difference among all complaint sources in different hospital settings (p=0.003).
Conclusion: In our study, death was the most common reason for lawsuits regarding malpractice accusations after THA, which is different from medical malpractice allegations throughout the world.
Declarations
Ethics Committee Approval
The study protocol was approved by the Council of Forensic Medicine (ATK), Istanbul, Türkiye Ethics Committee (date: 01.12.2020, no: 21589509/2020/1147). The study was conducted in accordance with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki.
Author Contributions
Conceived of the presented idea. Performed the analysis wrote the manuscript: M.M.S.; Collected the data: M.Y.A., E.Ö., A.S.; Reviewed the results and approved the final version of the manuscript: M.A.K.
Conflict of Interest
The authors declared no conflicts of interest with respect to the authorship and/or publication of this article.
Financial Disclosure
The authors received no financial support for the research and/or authorship of this article.
Data Sharing Statement
The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
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