[Delayed appendectomy because of diagnostic malpractice: Experiences of the Arbitration Board of the North German Medical Associations].

From 2000 to 2012, 447 panel proceedings concerning acute appendicitis were evaluated. 271 cases (57 %) were related to alleged diagnostic malpractice. This was confirmed in 176 cases (67 %). The following medical specialities were involved (m = quote of malpractice): general surgery 33 %, m = 51 %; paediatric surgery 3 %, m = 44 %; general practitioner and prehospital emergency services 24 %, m = 62 %; internal medicine 19 %, m = 70 %; paediatrics 13 %, m = 57 %; gynaecology 3 %, m = 91 %; urology 2 %, m = 17 %. The most frequent misdiagnosis was gastroenteritis (43 % in adults, 69 % in children), obviously based on the concomitant symptom of diarrhoea. Surgery revealed all stages of advanced appendicitis up to peritoneal sepsis, organic failure and death (n = 5). The evaluation of the files and the experts' reports of the 176 cases of diagnostic malpractice allowed to define the following basic failures, which led to unjustified delay of operation: careless history-taking, no or incomplete physical examination, no follow-up investigations, incorrect interpretation of the patient's complaints and clinical findings, no or incomplete documentation. Conducting a thorough investigation is essential to avoiding diagnostic malpractice. Internal analysis of failures or near failures may contribute to reducing the number of future cases of malpractice.