Litigations involving ureteral injury related to minimally invasive gynecologic surgery – Lessons learned from a legal literature review

Publication date: Available online 17 November 2018Source: Journal of Minimally Invasive GynecologyAuthor(s): Edward Kim, Harold Wu, Khara Simpson, Kristin Patzkowsky, Karen WangAbstractUreteral injury is a known complication of minimally invasive gynecologic surgery (MIGS). Despite being discussed preoperatively and included in consent forms, litigations that involve such injury continue to be prevalent.Our aim was to review all major litigations involving ureteral injuries related to minimally invasive gynecologic surgery to determine the most common allegations from plaintiffs and highlight factors that aided defendants.We utilized Lexis Nexis, a comprehensive legal database, to search all publicly available federal and state level cases on ureteral injury related to gynecologic surgeries.59 cases resulted from our search. Out of these cases, 19 were deemed pertinent to our question. These 19 case occurred between 1993 and 2018. The most common allegations included medical negligence, lack of informed consent, and medical battery. 8 out of 19 cases (42%) were decided in favor of the defendants, 3 out of 19 cases (16%) in favor of the plaintiffs, and the remaining cases proceeded to further trial or are ongoing. The monetary compensation to a plaintiff was as high as $426,079.50. Meticulous documentation, comprehensive consent procedure, timely post-operative evaluation, and the use of immediate post-operative cystoscopy were the critical factors that aided the defenda...
Source: Journal of Minimally Invasive Gynecology - Category: OBGYN Source Type: research