Prompted by an increase in interventional pain treatments performed at the cervical spine level, the study examined characteristics and patterns of injury in malpractice claims collected from Jan. 1, 2005-Dec. 31, 2008. The study was titled “Injury and Liability Associated with Cervical Procedures for Chronic Pain.”
The study compared claims arising from cervical pain treatments with all other chronic pain claims. Claims for spinal cord injury underwent in-depth analysis for mechanisms of injury and use of sedation. Examination of the malpractice claims found that of the patients who underwent a cervical procedure, 59 percent experienced spinal cord damage compared with 11 percent of patients with other chronic pain. Direct needle trauma was the predominant cause.
General anesthesia or sedation was used in 67 percent of cervical procedure claims associated with spinal cord injuries but in only 19 percent of cervical procedure claims not associated with spinal cord injuries.
Read the abstract of the study published in Anesthesiology.
Read more on anesthesia:
–ASA Meets With CMS Administrator Dr. Don Berwick
–Letter to NYTimes Discusses Merits of Calling Anesthesia a “Coma”
–Anesthesiologist on the Move: Dr. Carlos Nunez Joins CareFusion as CMO
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