Background:Adverse events are frequent in clinical practice, but only a few studies in Saudi Arabia have addressed them. The current study was designed to review the lawsuits against healthcare professionals by analyzing records of the cases dealt with by the Medico-legal Committees (MLC) in various provinces in Saudi Arabia, in order to determine the pattern of medical errors and litigations in the country.Materials and Methods:A pre-designed data sheet was used to collect data from the records of the Medical Violation Committee (MVC) and the Medical Jurisprudence Committee (MJC). The data sheets consisted of information on details of the cases, details on where the error had occurred, and details of the errors.Results:The review of records revealed 642 cases, most of which were from hospitals run by the Ministry of Health (MOH). The operating room was where most of the errors (20.4%) had occurred, followed by the emergency room (18.1%). Surgery was at the top of the specialties (25.1%). Most of the deaths occurred in surgery and obstetrics (about 25% for each), followed by other medical specialties (17%). About half of the lawsuit cases studied (46.5%) involved patients belonging to a relatively young age group (20–50 years).Conclusion:Most of the medical error litigations involved surgeons and obstetricians especially in MOH hospitals. The process of litigations and documentation need to be improved, and access to the records for research and education need to be made easier. In addition, there is a need for more prospective field studies.

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Our findings are consistent with other evidence that boys are more ready than girls to trade off visceral development in utero to protect somatic and brain growth. They also support the hypothesis that boys are more responsive to their mother's current diet than girls, who respond more to their mother's life time nutrition and metabolism. They provide the first evidence that changes in the life style of pregnant women during Ramadan affect more than one generation.

Background Ramadan is an annual period of day-time fasting during which people in Saudi Arabia, including pregnant women, change their diets and physical activity. We recently reported that among babies who were in the second or third trimester of gestation during Ramadan placental growth slowed. We also found that, over the four years of the study, placental weight increased by 29 g per year. We have now extended our data collection in order to examine this trend in more detail. Methods We studied the birth records of 17 660 singletons born in King Saud Hospital, Unizah, Saudi Arabia, over a ten year period. The records included birth weight, placental weight and gestational age. Results During the first six years of the study period mean placental weight rose by more than 100 g while mean birth weight was unchanged. This secular increase in placental weight was accompanied by a change in the placenta’s response to Ramadan. During the first half of the study period babies who were in their second or third trimester of gestation during Ramadan had reduced placental weight (475 g and 476 g compared with 484 g, p < 0.001 for both). During the second half of the study period babies who were in their first trimester of gestation during Ramadan had reduced placental weight (533 g compared with 539 g, p = 0.03). Conclusions We suggest that the secular increase in placental weight reflects changes in maternal body composition. These have altered placental responses to the dietary changes during Ramadan. The biological processes underlying these responses are not known.