Suresh NV, Shah VN, Fritz CG, Griff JR, Shah S, Watane A, Parikh RS, Nicolli EA. Medical malpractice litigation involving otolaryngology residents and fellows: A case-based 30-year review. World J Otorhinolaryngol 2022; 9(1): 1-11 [DOI: 10.5319/wjo.v9.i1.1]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Christian G Fritz, BSc, Research Fellow, Department of Otorhinolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, University of Pennsylvania, 800 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107, United States. christian.g.fritz@gmail.com
Research Domain of This Article
Otorhinolaryngology
Article-Type of This Article
Retrospective Study
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Otorhinolaryngol. Sep 27, 2022; 9(1): 1-11 Published online Sep 27, 2022. doi: 10.5319/wjo.v9.i1.1
Medical malpractice litigation involving otolaryngology residents and fellows: A case-based 30-year review
Neeraj V Suresh, Viraj N Shah, Christian G Fritz, Jessica R Griff, Shreni Shah, Arjun Watane, Ravi S Parikh, Elizabeth A Nicolli
Neeraj V Suresh, Christian G Fritz, Department of Otorhinolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19107, United States
Viraj N Shah, Jessica R Griff, Elizabeth A Nicolli, Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Miami, FL 33136, United States
Shreni Shah, Morsani College of Medicine, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL 33612, United States
Arjun Watane, Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Science, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT 06510, United States
Ravi S Parikh, Department of Ophthalmology, NYU Grossman School of Medicine, New York, NY 10016, United States
Author contributions: Suresh NV, Shah VN, and Fritz CG designed the research study; Griff JR, Shah S, Watane A and Parikh RS performed the research; Suresh NV and Fritz CG analyzed the data and wrote the manuscript; all authors have read and approve the final manuscript.
Institutional review board statement: This study was exempted.
Informed consent statement: Patients were not required to give informed consent to the study because the analysis used anonymous clinical data that were obtained after each patient agreed to treatment by written consent.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All authors have no financial relationships to disclose.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Christian G Fritz, BSc, Research Fellow, Department of Otorhinolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, University of Pennsylvania, 800 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107, United States. christian.g.fritz@gmail.com
Received: June 11, 2022 Peer-review started: June 11, 2022 First decision: June 27, 2022 Revised: July 9, 2022 Accepted: August 16, 2022 Article in press: August 16, 2022 Published online: September 27, 2022 Processing time: 103 Days and 8.1 Hours
Core Tip
Core Tip: Prior reports indicate that surgeons will face at least one malpractice lawsuit during their career. Malpractice suits and the threat thereof may pose a significant psychological burden on young otolaryngologists. Preparation for such a situation should be embedded into residency curricula, yet no prior study has reported on the topic of otolaryngology trainee litigation on a state/federal level. The reported cases highlight the importance of thorough informed consent, proper diagnosis/management, and clear communication between attending physicians and trainees. Incorporating these seminal cases into the existing literature would support preemptive educational efforts and provide evidence-based insight for trainees in a legal predicament.
