The Canadian Medical Protective Association (Canada’s provider of medical liability protection) has advised its members to consider fully the risks when caring for patients having bariatric surgery.

“Understanding the medicolegal risks of caring for patients having bariatric surgery in Canada allows surgeons, and other physicians involved in caring for these patients, to better manage those risks,” Diane Héroux, a medical analyst, and Gordon Wallace, the association’s director of education, write in an association journal.1

Between 2006 and 2011 the association dealt with 27 medicolegal cases relating to bariatric surgery, 21 of which were settled. A review of the closed cases showed that the …