SURGEON´S MALPRACTICE tataderocio@vtr.net

PE074

SURGEON´S MALPRACTICE

1

Chile

Poster with Discussion

Surgeon´s professional and istitutional legal liability has become increasingly significant worldwide. An increasing number of surgical procedures are associated with subsequent legal actions. In Chile, legal files related with each case are submitted by the Public Prosecutor´s Office (criminal lawsuits) and/or Courts of Justice (civil lawsuits) to the national Medical Legal Service. This governmental body, operating under the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights is tasked with providing a final assesment regarding surgical malpractice.

Legal case files, including clinical records in all cases. of 608 malpractice accusations against surgeons and/or health care institutions related to surgical pathologies or procedures were rewieved and assesed by the author over and eleven years period (July 2014 to July 2025). Among these, 71 cases (11,7%) in wich surgeon malpractice and/or institutional liability was formally confirmed. Of these, 36 cases (50,7%) involved female patients and 35 (49,3%) male patients. Twenty-four patients survived ( 33,8%), while 47 (66,2%) deceased, with legal actions initiated by their relatives.

The distribution of cases according to involved pathologie is summarized in Table 1. The main type of infringement of Lex Artis is shown in Table 2.

The aim is to share the author´s experiencie in reviewing and judging malpractice accusations against Surgeons or Institutions. Due to personal criteria, is not possible to establish an universal and repeatable conclusion. Surgeons and institutions have legal duty to ensure timely and adequate diagnostic and therapeutics measures but not neccesarili favorable outcomes, with comprehensible and transparent information to the patient.