• Devon Lefever, Darian R Esfahani, Sandeep Kandregula, Krystle Trosclair, Audrey Demand, Alexis Vega, Jason Stacy, Namath Hussein, Rimal Dossani, Arjun Pendharkar, Richard Menger, Jennifer Kosty, Catherine Mazzola, Nitin Agarwal, Kristopher Kimmell, Joshua Rosenow, Jeffrey Cozzens, Clemens Schirmer, Bharat Guthikonda, and Council of State Neurosurgical Societies (CSNS).
• Department of Neurosurgery, LSU Health Sciences Center, Shreveport, Louisiana, USA.
• World Neurosurg. 2021 Jul 1; 151: 370-374.

AbstractMedical malpractice litigation is something that every neurosurgeon encounters in his or her career and causes significant strife to amateur physicians attempting to navigate the medicolegal process. Neurosurgery in particular is one of the highest risk specialties for litigation. This calls to order the importance of a clear understanding of the medicolegal proceedings that may follow after a complaint has been filed. This report describes the steps to be taken by the physician in the instance that litigation is expected or considered a possibility. We describe the elements that comprise a medical malpractice claim, details of the lawsuit process including hospital peer review and expert witness selection, and how to communicate appropriately with the patients and their families in an empathetic way. It is imperative to gain an appropriate understanding of the entirety of the malpractice claim process to ease the anxiety of litigation for the physician and decrease the amount of avoidable complications.Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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