Table S1. Comparison of previous research analyzing claims related to thyroid surgery.
| Characteristics | Dralle et al., 2012 | Singer et al., 2012 | Dent et al., 2017 | Gartland et al., 2019 | Wijekoon et al., 2019 | Ours |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Country | Germany | USA | UK | USA | UK | South Korea |
| Source | Institutional expert opinions | Physicians Insurers Association of America malpractice claims database | NHS Litigation Authority database | Controlled Risk Insurance Company Strategies’ Comparative Benchmarking System malpractice claims database | NHS Litigation Authority database | Supreme court of Korea’s written judgment management system database |
| Covered period | 1995 to 2010 | 1985 to 2008 | 1995.1 to 2012.7 | 1995 to 2015 | 2002.4 to 2016.11 | 1998.1 to 2019.7 |
| Number of total cases | 75 | 380 | 161 | 128 | 189 | 35 |
| Alleged adverse event, n (%)† | ||||||
| Vocal cord palsy and/or RLN injury | 43 (57.3) | 55 (14.5) | 33 (20.5) | 39 (30.5) | 12†† (6.3) | 7 (20.0) |
| Hypocalcemia with hypoparathyroidism | 21 (28.0) | 9 (2.4) | 6‡ (3.7) | 10 (7.8) | 3†† (1.6) | 3 (8.6) |
| Unnecessary surgery | N/I | N/I | 2§ (1.2) | 5¶ (3.9) | 16†† (8.5) | 7 (20.0) |
| Delayed diagnosis | N/I | N/I | 40 (24.8) | N/I | 22†† (11.6) | 4 (11.4) |
| Bleeding/hematoma | 7 (9.3) | N/I | N/I | 18 (14.1) | N/I | 5 (14.3) |
| IONM for RLN | 3 cases without using IONM were ruled as malpractice | No case on IONM | No case on IONM | No case on IONM | No case on IONM | No case on IONM |
†, percentage of each alleged adverse event in total cases; ‡, low serum calcium; §, 1 incorrect surgery, 1 inappropriate surgery; ¶, wrong-side surgery; ††, number of cases for each alleged adverse event out of 91 ‘successful cases’ in which the plaintiff was rewarded payment. NHS, National Health Service; RLN, recurrent laryngeal nerve; N/I, no information; IONM, intraoperative neural monitoring.