La responsabilità professionale medica nei minori. Uno sguardo medico-legale tra le ragioni della dottrina e quelle del cuore

Introduction. Over the past few decades there has been a steady increase in the numberof requests for medical professional liability.Objective. A medico-legal observatory on professional liability cases has beenset up in an Italian university hospital, with the aim of monitoring and documentingthe characteristics of negligence disputes from a medico-legal point of view.Methods. The general analysis includes over 1450 cases, archived between 2004 and 2019.The subpopulation of cases concerning subjects < 18 years and equal to 184 cases(13% of the total) is then examined.Results. In 60% of cases, the claims related to the medical disciplinary area, 20% of the casesto the surgical area and 12% to the emergency area, 8% related to the service area.In the sample of the general population, the percentage of recognition of responsibility by doctorsof the facility is 33%, while in the case of minors it is observed equal to 45%.Discussion. Multiple reasons can be highlighted to explain the phenomenon observed suchas the frequent absence of comorbidity in young patients, a particular empathy of the evaluatorin ascertaining cases relating to minors and probably regarding the presence of elementsof organizational deficiencies that may induce to recognize more responsibility. With regardto the latter hypothesis, further studies will need to be carried out in the future.Conclusion. The data collected can be useful from an educational and didactic point of viewfor professionals dealing with minors and can benefit from useful references to the correctand compilation of the medical record.