Background: While the liability risks for obstetrics and gynecology (ob/gyn) physicians are widely recognized, little is known about how trainees have been involved in ob/gyn lawsuits. Objectives: To characterize involvement of trainees in malpractice lawsuits related to ob/gyn. Methods: The legal database Westlaw was utilized to collect ob/gyn-related malpractice lawsuits involving trainees reported from 1986 to 2020 in the USA. Outcome: Forty-six malpractice cases involving ob/gyn trainees were identified, including 34 cases related to obstetrics and 12 to gynecology. There were 11 cases alleging lack of informed consent, including 7 cases alleging lack of consent for trainee involvement. Of the 34 obstetrics cases, 27 related to procedural complications, 17 to treatment, 13 to diagnosis, and 4 to informed consent. Of these, 17 were decided in favor of the physician, 6 resulted in findings of negligence, 9 had unknown outcomes, and 3 ended in settlement. For the 6 cases ending in a finding of negligence, the mean award was $2,174,472 compared to $685,000 for those that were settled. Of the 12 gynecology cases, 8 related to procedural complications, 7 to informed consent, 3 to diagnosis, and 2 to treatment. Of these, 6 were decided in favor of the physician, 3 resulted in findings of negligence, and 3 had unknown outcomes. For the cases ending in a finding of negligence, the mean award was $465,000. Conclusions and Outlook: This review of malpractice cases highlights types of situations in which trainees are sued and reveals the importance of designing curriculum around faculty training and supervision regarding trainee involvement in patient care.

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Patients with dizziness account for fewer than 5% of ED visits, 1 but they pose significant malpractice risks to emergency physicians.While most patients' symptoms are due to benign etiologies, an estimated 15% of patients with dizziness harbor more dangerous causes, 1 and differentiating these groups of patients has proven to be challenging in the ED setting. For example, it is estimated that nearly 10% of strokes are missed on first presentation to the ED, and patients initially presenting with dizziness are the most likely to be misdiagnosed. 2 While literature surrounding malpractice specific to dizziness is limited, in litigation involving strokes, emergency physicians are the most likely specialists to be named in malpractice suits, more often than neurologists, neurosurgeons, interventional radiologists, and radiologists combined. 3 The goal of this investigation was to better understand the malpractice risks surrounding patients presenting to the ED with dizziness, including their clinical characteristics and outcomes. To better characterize cases leading to malpractice allegations, we performed an observational study of lawsuits related to patients who presented to the ED with dizziness or similar symptoms and were subsequently diagnosed with a central nervous system (CNS) cause. Adhering to the Strengthening the Reporting of Observational studies in Epidemiology (STROBE) guidelines, 4 we searched Thomson Reuters Westlaw, a legal database containing tens of thousands of state and federal legal cases, in August 2022. Within the "Jury Verdicts and Settlements" database of Westlaw, we searched for cases occurring from 1970 to August 2022 with the search terms "medical malpractice" and any of the following: dizzy, dizziness, lightheaded, lightheadedness, unsteady, unsteadiness, gait, vertigo, and ataxia. The initial search yielded 570 cases. After cases not related to CNS pathology (n = 460, 80.7%), duplicate cases (n = 5), nonmedical cases (n = 25), cases with insufficient information (n = 8), and patients younger than 16 years (n = 3) were excluded, 69 cases were included for data abstraction. The most common non-CNS causes of dizziness included cardiovascular (n = 107), trauma (n = 84), and procedural complications (n = 49). Abstracted data, discussed a priori, included demographics; dates and sites of the case; and details of the clinical encounter including symptoms, neuroimaging (CT, MRI, none), treatment, disposition, alleged error, and clinical and legal outcomes.