Home › Surgical Errors

Surgical error expert witnesses

Board-certified surgeons across general, orthopedic, vascular, and plastic surgery for cases involving technique, retained objects, wrong-site events, and post-operative management.

Request an Expert See Pricing

Surgical cases require an expert who still holds a scalpel. Judges and juries weigh heavily whether the reviewing surgeon actively performs the procedure at issue, and opposing counsel will probe case volume in deposition. Retain's surgical experts are screened for active practice and procedure-specific experience.

Our surgeons address the full arc: informed consent adequacy, operative technique and intraoperative decision-making, retained foreign objects, wrong-site and wrong-level events, and the post-operative recognition-and-rescue window where many injuries actually become permanent.

Common engagements include bile duct injuries in laparoscopic cholecystectomy, anastomotic leaks, nerve injuries in spine and joint procedures, vascular injuries, and delayed recognition of post-operative complications.

Specialties often retained for surgical errors cases

General Surgery Orthopedic Surgery Plastic Surgery Vascular Surgery

Frequently asked questions

Does the expert need to perform this exact procedure?

For technique opinions, it is strongly preferable and in some states required. Tell us the CPT code or procedure name and we match surgeons who actively perform it.

Can one expert cover both the surgery and the post-op care?

Often yes, the operating surgeon owns post-operative management. Where nursing or hospitalist conduct is also at issue, we can add a second expert for those standards.

What about never events like retained sponges?

Retained-object and wrong-site cases still need expert testimony on causation and damages, and often on OR count procedures. Our surgical and perioperative experts cover both.