Resident, Division of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York, NY.
Dental Student, School of Dental Medicine, University of Connecticut, Farmington, CT.
J Oral Maxillofac Surg. 2021 Aug;79(8):1743-1749. doi: 10.1016/j.joms.2021.04.007. Epub 2021 Apr 18.
The primary objective of this study was to examine medical malpractice in facial cosmetic surgery procedures to characterize factors that determine legal liability and help make the oral-maxillofacial surgeon (OMS) more comfortable with treating this patient population.
The Thomson Reuters Westlaw Edge is a subscription-based legal database that contains decisional law and other data from a variety of state and federal court records. The database was queried for medical malpractice cases involving facial surgical cosmetic procedures from 2010 to 2020.
A total of 763 malpractice cases were identified through the search. After removing duplicates, 758 malpractice cases were hand reviewed based on inclusion/exclusion criteria. A total of 55 cases met criteria for inclusion. Verdict decisions and settlements occurred in the years of 2010 to 2019. Of those 55 cases, the highest concentration of cases occurred in New York (14), California (10) and Pennsylvania (6). Seventy-four percent of the verdicts were in favor of the defendant, 4% of cases settled and 22% of cases were decided in favor of the plaintiff. The minimum award of damages was $8,597.71 with the maximum of $4,150,000.00 (mean: $72,1915.69 ± $1,131,245.94). The provider's primary specialty was most often plastic and reconstructive surgery (84%), followed by ophthalmology (7%), dermatology (3%) and ENT (4%).
While it is comforting to know that 74% of malpractice cases in the last decade were found in favor of the surgeon, it is important to realize how devastating the litigation experience can be for a medical practitioner. The best defense to a malpractice case is to avoid one altogether. Learning from past mistakes is one way of ensuring that goal.
本研究的主要目的是检查面部美容手术中的医疗事故，以确定决定法律责任的因素，并帮助口腔颌面外科医生（OMS）更舒适地治疗这一患者群体。
Thomson Reuters Westlaw Edge 是一个基于订阅的法律数据库，其中包含来自各种州和联邦法院记录的决策法和其他数据。该数据库针对 2010 年至 2020 年期间涉及面部外科美容手术的医疗事故案件进行了查询。
通过搜索共确定了 763 例医疗事故案件。去除重复项后，根据纳入/排除标准对手动审查了 758 例医疗事故案件。共有 55 例符合纳入标准。判决决定和和解发生在 2010 年至 2019 年。在这 55 例中，纽约（14 例）、加利福尼亚州（10 例）和宾夕法尼亚州（6 例）的病例最多。74%的判决有利于被告，4%的案件和解，22%的案件有利于原告。损害赔偿金的最低数额为 8597.71 美元，最高数额为 4150000.00 美元（平均值：721915.69 ± 1131245.94 美元）。提供者的主要专业通常是整形和重建外科（84%），其次是眼科（7%）、皮肤科（3%）和耳鼻喉科（4%）。
虽然知道在过去十年中，74%的医疗事故案件对外科医生有利令人欣慰，但重要的是要意识到诉讼经历对医疗从业者来说可能是多么毁灭性。对医疗事故案件的最佳防御是完全避免此类案件。从过去的错误中吸取教训是确保这一目标的一种方法。
