Malpractice Litigation in Vitreoretinal Surgery and Medical Retina.

BACKGROUND AND

OBJECTIVE

To report and analyze the causes and outcomes of vitreoretinal surgery and medical retina malpractice litigation.

PATIENTS AND

METHODS

The WestLaw database was reviewed for all vitreoretinal malpractice litigation in the United States between 1930 and 2014.

RESULTS

One hundred forty-two retina cases were included. Overall, 64.1% of cases were resolved in favor of defendants. Eighty-three (58.5%) cases were resolved via jury trial, 30.1% of which were associated with plaintiff verdicts with mean adjusted jury award of $5,222,894 (median, $691,974). Eight cases (5.6%) resulted in settlements with mean adjusted indemnity of $726,003 (median: $437,165). Jury awards were higher than settlement awards (P = .04). Commonly litigated scenarios included retinal detachment (46.5%) and retinopathy of prematurity (9.2%).

CONCLUSIONS

The complexity of treating vitreoretinal problems and the high potential for vision loss inherent in many diagnoses make treating retinal problems high-risk. Many cases in this series resulted in multi-million-dollar plaintiff awards. [Ophthalmic Surg Lasers Imaging Retina. 2020;51:272-278.].