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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Health Serv.
Sec. Patient Safety
Volume 4 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/frhs.2024.1408934

Medical Malpractice in Organ Transplantation: Public Allegations and Key Legal Outcomes

Provisionally accepted
Panos Arvanitis Panos Arvanitis 1Michel R. Davis Michel R. Davis 2Abby London Abby London 1Dimitrios Farmakiotis Dimitrios Farmakiotis 1*
  • 1 Division of Infectious Diseases, Warren Alpert Medical School, Brown University, Providence, United States
  • 2 Warren Alpert Medical School, Brown University, Providence, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Introduction: Despite significant advances in surgical techniques and patient outcomes, organ transplantation (OT) remains fraught with legal challenges and ethical dilemmas. This study aims to address the notable gap in literature on malpractice claims specifically related to OT, providing insights into litigation trends, outcomes, and implications for medical practice and patient care. Methods: We retrospectively queried the Verdictsearch database from 1988 to 2023, and captured malpractice claims involving several organs. Data on demographics, organ types, and litigation outcomes were collected to compare compensation across different categories of malpractice and patient outcomes.Results: Out of 292 malpractice cases identified, 62 met inclusion criteria, distributed across 19 states with kidney being the most implicated organ (46.8%). Defendants prevailed in 53.2% of cases, while settlements were reached in 29.0%, and plaintiffs won in 16.1% of cases. Surgical errors and complications were the most frequent allegations, followed by medication and treatment errors. The median compensation for deceased plaintiffs was significantly higher

    Keywords: OT=Organ Transplantation, CMV=Cytomegalovirus, OTR=Organ Transplantation Candidates or Recipients, IQR = interquartile range, SD= Standard deviation, KWH=Kruskal-Wallis H, MW=Mann-Whitney

    Received: 06 Apr 2024; Accepted: 29 Jul 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Arvanitis, Davis, London and Farmakiotis. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Dimitrios Farmakiotis, Division of Infectious Diseases, Warren Alpert Medical School, Brown University, Providence, United States

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.