The twelfth conference on clinical and forensic traumatology, scheduled for a Salsomaggiore il 25 and 26 November, with the title “The causes of failure in orthopedics and rehabilitation medicine: from planning to litigation”, this year will deepen the legal and medico-legal issues related to failures in orthopedics and rehabilitation medicine, also in relation to the most recent developments in health profession. Developments that inevitably lead to the emergence of new clinical and medico-legal problems inherent in medical, surgical and rehabilitative treatment.
Among the various sessions scheduled there will be specific moments of in-depth study on new information technologies and their economic impact on a health level. One session will be dedicated to sports traumatology, with particular attention to innovative therapies in minimally invasive surgery. An innovative rehabilitation session and one for physiotherapists are also scheduled. Finally, of particular interest is the clinical session that will investigate the non-healing of the fracture and describe the risk factors, up to the medico-legal implications.
The congress will end with the forensic trauma seminar, scheduled for Saturday 26 November and with a military coroner session.
“In the face of a defect in the result and / or a derived damage, the evaluation of the conduct of the specialist appears today as central as ever, in order to understand whether any biological damage complained of by the patient is due to reprehensible behavior or is the expression of a unexpected and unpredictable complication and, therefore, not attributable to the healthcare professional – he explains Fabio Donellipresident of the congress together with Mario Gabbrielli e Giorgio Varacca -. To this end, it is first of all necessary to analyze the causal link between the therapeutic conduct and the traumatic event. It should also be noted that complications are conditions that must always be budgeted in the budget of an intervention and foreseen on the basis of specific risk factors ».
The result of a treatment, both surgical and conservative, in fact presents difficulties of interpretation in relation to various factors: the clinical and personal characteristics of the patient; the indication for surgery based on the anatomical-clinical picture or the type of fracture suffered; the assessment of risk factors; the information; the surgical technique; verification of the result; the need for active collaboration with the patient. It is therefore necessary to evaluate the risk / benefit ratio of the chosen treatment in the light of current legislation and in particular the Gelli-Bianco law, which refers to “good clinical care practices and recommendations provided for by the guidelines”.
“The methodology for establishing whether the failure of a medical service derives from a complication or an error, and therefore if the possibility of any professional liability arises, is based on the analysis of the medical record, health documentation, consent and the relevance of the guidelines and good clinical practice – explains Donelli -. All these aspects will be taken into consideration and deepened during the congress, which will start with the evaluation of the criticality of the management and of the planned interventions with navigation (computer assisted) and with the use of pre-operative planning software. The conservative or surgical approach and the role of the pediatric orthopedist, that of the orthopedic geriatrician and the actual role of the trainee will then be analyzed “.