Med Mal Lawsuits and Aortic Dissection – The Deadly Condition Often Missed in the Emergency Department

If left untreated, aortic dissection carries a mortality rate nearing 50% within 48 hours of symptom onset. Alarmingly, fewer than half of all cases are correctly diagnosed in the emergency department at first presentation.

This article, written by Bethany R. Nikitenko and published in The Legal Intelligencer, provides a brief overview of the condition, the standard of care for clinicians when a patient presents at an emergency department with symptoms suggestive of aortic dissection, as well as practice tips for litigating these complex cases.