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Using Cataract Surgery To Explain A Doctor's Duty To Disclose

16 May 2016

Joy Johnson

All doctors are required to disclose all relevant treatment details to their patients. Your doctor commits medical malpractice if they withhold some relevant information. Using an example of a cataract surgery (three million cataract surgeries are performed in America every year), here is some of the crucial information your surgeon should disclose:

What the Treatment Involves

You can only make an informed decision on your surgical procedure if you know what it entails, so the surgeon should tell you this. In cataract surgery, the surgeon removes the damaged natural lens and replaces it with a functional artificial one. In most cases, cataract surgery is an outpatient surgical procedure performed under local anesthesia; you will be able to go home the same day. The surgery is done one eye at a time; you need to schedule another visit if you need both eyes corrected.

The Risks of the Surgery

Secondly, the doctor should explain the risks and let you decide if the surgery is worth having. For example, the typical risks of cataract surgery include infection, inflammation, loss of vision, and swelling, among others. The complications are more likely to occur if you have other medical conditions, especially those affecting the eyes. Note that the surgeon is only required to explain the known risks that any other competent surgeon would know about.

This information can help you make important decisions. For example, would you rather keep your cloudy vision to avoid losing it all? If the surgeon doesn't disclose an important risk, and you end up having to deal with it, then you can accuse them of medical malpractice.

The Success Rate of the Surgery

You may be willing to take a chance with the complications above if the success rate of the procedure is high enough. This is why it's important to understand how many people consider their cataract surgeries successful. According to some statistics, the success rate of cataract surgery is at least 98%. This means the risk of having a poor vision after the procedure is 2% or less. Consider an example where a doctor doesn't tell you that the success rate of a certain procedure is less than 50%, and you end up in a worse condition after the treatment. In such a case, you might argue that you wouldn't have taken the option had you known about its dismal success rate.

Alternative Treatments

Finally, the surgeon should also tell you whether the treatment is the only one available for your condition or there are alternatives. You need this information to choose the best course of treatment. Currently, cataract surgery is the only way of treating cataracts (research on alternative treatments is ongoing). Therefore, you can have the surgery hope that you fall among the 98% who experience success or refuse it and hope for a miraculous recovery. A doctor who doesn't reveal this information is committing medical malpractice.

Do you suspect that your doctor failed to reveal crucial information before your treatment? If such an omission of information leads to an injury, you are entitled to compensation for your damages. Talk to a medical malpractice lawyer to evaluate your case. 

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