The evaluation of the causes of anesthesiologist's legal pursuits in Tehran Medical Consil from 1993 to 2003

Anesthesiologists, like other specialists, are subjected to legal pursuit of their country during medical activities. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the causes of anesthesiologists’ legal pursuits. This is a retrospective study which the causes of anesthesiologist's legal pursuits with study of 70 files in Tehran Medical Council from 1993 to 2003 were determined and Investigated; the cases were investigated that the ruling of high disciplinary committee was issued about them. The mean age of the patients (complainants/deaths) was 31.94±20.58 (1.5 to 87 years old). Most of the cases/deaths were below 40 years old (42 cases, 75.36%). There were 14 cases (20.3%) in group of children (below 15 years old). The most common reasons for complaint were death of the patient (56 cases, 80%) followed by neurological complications including paralysis (5 cases, 7.14%). The leading place of the subject of legal pursuits was the hospitals (64 cases, 91.43%) followed by day clinics (4.29%). More than 90% of the events happened during general anesthesia while 5% of them occurred during MAC. About 71, 64% of the events took place in an elective surgery. While most of the cases underwent anesthesia by an anesthesiologist (94%), there were 4 cases (5.97%) of anesthesia by other staff (technician or M.S. of anesthesiology). The primary court verdicts convicted anesthesiologist in 66.18% of the cases and 66.67% of these verdicts were verified by higher-ranked courts. In 43 cases the anesthesiologists were sentenced to pay damages and 2 cases were sentenced to written warning in their records. Averagely the ratio of anesthesiologists’ medical misdeed was 43.95%±25.4% (5% to 100%). Most of the cases leading to legal pursuit occur in daily routine anesthesia