Surgical Error The case of WILLIAM DeSANTIS and ANN DeSANTIS, Plaintiffs, v. GARY ZITO, M.D., METROPOLITAN LITHOTRIPTOR ASSOCIATES, P.C. and METROPOLITAN UROLOGICAL SPECIALIST, P.C., Defendants, Index No. 109753/09 (Supreme Court, New York County, April 24, 2011). In this case, the plaintiff suffered from an enlarged prostate. As (more…)
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Complications alleged from the use of AlloDerm AlloDerm® Regenerative Tissue Matrix (“AlloDerm”) is a biologic allograft product manufactured by LifeCell Corporation. Surgeons use AlloDerm in abdominal repair surgeries, hernia repair surgeries, and other reconstructive surgeries. There have been patient complaints of having experienced complications from the use (more…)
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Preventable Medical Errors – The Sixth Biggest Killer in America Everyday patients place their faith and trust in doctors, nurses, and hospitals. Unfortunately, medical mistakes do occur. When this happens, people can be seriously injured or even killed. A study has suggested that medical errors are the (more…)
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An FDA article in the journal Nursing2009 describes problems that can arise with the use alarms on patient monitoring equipment. From 2005 through 2008, FDA received 566 reports of patient deaths related to the alarms on monitoring devices. Part of the problem is that alarms can very (more…)
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An article by the Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP) reminds healthcare practitioners how dangerous it can be to misread the letters and numbers on prescriptions, drug orders and medical records. Unfortunately, these mistakes are easy to make because some of the alphanumeric symbols we use look (more…)
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During laparoscopic gallbladder removal surgery, there can be times when the surgeon mistakes the common bile duct for the cystic duct. If the surgeon does not recognize this error before clipping or dissecting, this may produce a serious injury or inappropriate damage or insult to the common bile duct. As (more…)
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Intraoperative Cholangiography Cholecystectomy is the most commonly performed elective abdominal surgical procedure in the United States. Each year approximately 750,000 cholecystectomies are performed in the United States alone.1 For every 200 cholecystectomies performed one injury to the common bile duct occurs.2 An injury to the common bile (more…)
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