Litigation related to regional anaesthesia: an analysis of claims against the NHS in England 1995–2007*

Abstract

We analysed 366 claims related to regional anaesthesia and analgesia from the 841 anaesthesia-related claims handled by the National Health Service Litigation Authority between 1995 and 2007. The majority of claims (281/366, 77%) were closed at the time of analysis. The total cost of closed claims was pound12,724,017 (34% of the cost of the anaesthesia dataset) with a median (IQR [range]) of pound4772 (pound0-28,907 [pound0-2,070,092]). Approximately half of the claims (186/366; 51%) were related to obstetric anaesthesia and analgesia and of the non-obstetric claims, the majority (148/180; 82%) were related to neuraxial block. The total cost for obstetric closed claims was pound5,433,920 (median (IQR [range]) pound5678 (pound0-27,690 [pound0-1,597,565]) while that for non-obstetric closed claims was pound7,290,097 (pound3337 (pound0-31,405 [pound0-2,070,062]). Non-obstetric claims were more likely to relate to severe outcomes than obstetric ones. The maximum values of claims were higher for claims related to neuraxial blocks and eye blocks than for peripheral nerve blocks. Despite many limitations, including lack of clinical detail for each case, the dataset provides a useful overview of the extent, patterns and cost associated with the claims.