On April 27, 2016, respected JAMA Surgery published a peer-reviewed article entitled “Seven procedures account for 80% of emergency general surgery operations, deaths, and complications, US study finds”. Those suspect surgeries, all of which involve the digestive system, are: (1) partial colectomy; (2) small bowel resection; (3) cholecystectomy; (4) operative management of peptic ulcer disease; (5) lysis of peritoneal adhesions; (6) appendectomy; and (7) laparotomy.
The physician investigators/authors emphasize: “This is a particularly high-risk population of surgery patients – those who undergo an EGS [emergency general surgery] operation are 8 times more likely to die postoperatively than are patients undergoing the same procedures electively.” Moreover, “approximately half of the all patients undergoing EGS will develop a postoperative complication.”
Obviously such surgeries may result in medical malpractice claims. Mr. Waterman has handled such cases before.
