Review of successful litigation against english health trusts in the treatment of adults with orthopaedic pathology: clinical governance lessons learned

Background: Reviewing litigation brought against health institutions is a clinical governance issue and can help to prevent further cases. While large-scale databases are rare, the British National Health Service Litigation Authority deals with claims brought against all public health trusts in England.

Methods: We reviewed all 2312 successful cases pertaining to adult orthopaedic claims between 2000 and 2006 in an effort to establish trends of litigation and highlight specific areas of concern such that orthopaedic health care could be potentially improved. A total of 1473 entries had sufficient detail to be considered in our study.

Results: There were 4,847,841 elective and trauma-related orthopaedic procedures performed between 2000 and 2006 in the United Kingdom. Compared with the number of cases performed, the frequency of successful litigation is relatively low but financially costly to the National Health Service. From 2000 to 2006, a total of more than US$321,695,072 was paid in adult orthopaedic surgery-related settlements. The most common reason for successful litigation was due to the presence and sequelae of infection (123 cases). In the remaining cases, successful litigation appeared to be related to two common themes: the consent process and the mismanagement of orthopaedic conditions, particularly fractures, cauda equina syndrome, and compartment syndrome.

Conclusions: These findings highlight the fact that education and vigilance remain important components of orthopaedic training as many of the cases of successful litigation had a preventable cause.