Surgical Errors

Surgical injuries are relatively common. Usually, one of the risks of surgery presented to a patient is surgical injury to some of the surrounding anatomical structures. The knife can slip, even under the most careful hands. Cases of surgical negligence become viable medical malpractice cases when the surgical injury is either not appreciated or worse, ignored.

If a surgeon cuts the wrong structure and fails to diagnose it, that is often negligence. If a surgeon cuts a structure without properly identifying it causing harm, that can be negligence as well. On the other hand, if a surgeon cuts the wrong structure during surgery, immediately recognizes and does everything he can to repair it, that will present a much more difficult case of negligence to prove.

Many times the surgical error is apparent in the dictated operative note. The records must be carefully examined in order to determine whether there was a deviation from the standard of care causing injury.

Common causes of surgical injuries include:

• Wrong-site surgery - operating in the wrong area of the body.
  
• Wrong surgical procedure. This can include removing the wrong part of the body, such as limbs, organs, and tissue.
  
• Surgical instrument left in the body - retractors, sponges, and surgical towels can all be left in the body. According to the Centers for Disease Control, approximately 15,000 surgical patients have had a surgical instrument left inside their body in the past few years.
  
• Surgery unrelated to the patient's diagnosis.
  
• Wrong patient surgery.
  
• Damage from a planned surgery - this can occur when damage is not a risk that was explained to the patient before undergoing surgery.

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