Supreme Court, Orange County grants summary judgment to orthopedic surgeon in case claiming that improper surgical technique during a total knee arthroplasty led to peripheral nerve injury and complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS)
Posted on Apr 12, 2022 4:25am PDT
Gerspach Sikoscow obtained summary judgment and an outright dismissal on
behalf of an orthopedic surgeon who performed a right total knee replacement
upon the 54-year-old male plaintiff. In our summary judgment motion, we
established that (1) there is no evidence that plaintiff sustained any
type of peripheral nerve injury as a consequence of surgery; and (2) there
is nothing about the subject surgery that led to plaintiff’s development
of CRPS, a rare complication that can arise after any type of invasive
procedure involving a limb. In opposition to our motion, plaintiff’s
orthopedic surgery expert alleged that improper malrotations and maltranslations
of the implants during the surgery, along with excessive tourniquet time
(65 minutes), caused the plaintiff to suffer patella maltracking, unrecognized
tibial torsion, extensor mechanism malfunction, and CRPS. The patient’s
expert further claimed that our client failed to timely diagnose CRPS
post-operatively and failed to timely perform a revision knee arthroplasty
to correct mechanical issues with the implants. Ultimately, the court
agreed with our argument that plaintiff’s expert’s opinions
as to what occurred during the subject surgery were speculative and without
factual support in the record. The court also refused to consider the
allegations concerning our client’s failure to diagnose CRPS and
re-operate due to the fact that such allegations were improperly raised
for the first time in opposition to our meritorious summary judgment motion.
Given these deficiencies in plaintiff’s proof, the court concluded
that plaintiff had failed to rebut our motion and dismissed all claims
against our client.