Minerva

A young woman with two children consented to having her cystic left ovary removed because it was causing lower abdominal pain. During surgery the surgeon noticed the right ovary was trapped and stuck down, and he proceeded to remove that too. Five months later the patient started to experience menopausal symptoms, and despite treatment she never returned to her “pre-operative state.” She sued the surgeon for removing the right ovary without proper consent and won. There was no evidence that the right ovary was causing problems and she wasn’t facing life threatening complications (Casebook 2009;17:September, www.medicalprotection.org/uk).

The evidence about whether the routine use of nasogastric tubes prevents postoperative nausea and vomiting has been inconclusive. An analysis of data from a trial of 4055 patients, which was initially designed to look at the effectiveness of anti-emetic treatments, shows that routine use of nasogastric tubes did not reduce the incidence …