Refractive Surgery: Malpractice Litigation Outcomes
Custer BL, Ballard SR, Carroll RB, Barnes SD, Justin GA Cornea. 2017;36:1243-1248
Study Summary
The authors of the current study looked at jury verdicts and settlements in cases regarding corneal refractive surgery (from 1988 to 2014) in the WestlawNext legal database. Per the authors, this database "collects jury verdicts that commercial vendors have deemed important either because of precedence or content," and that are "publicly available in federal and state court records." They acknowledge that the cases in this database do not represent all malpractice cases in the United States.
Not surprisingly, 76% of the cases were related to LASIK. Also not surprisingly, given that the cases go back to 1998, 15% were related to radial keratotomy. About half of the plaintiff allegations involved lack of informed consent.
Following adjustment for inflation, plaintiffs were awarded an average of $1,287,872, with jury verdicts and settlements resulting in mean awards of $1,604,801 and $826,883, respectively.
Viewpoint
Looking at malpractice claims and trial data is a little like morbidity and mortality rounds. Such reviews highlight problems, allow analysis of what might have gone wrong, and identify ways to prevent similar problems in the future.
An important question is: How representative is this database of all malpractice cases?
