Perfil dos processos cíveis por suposto erro médico na pediatria no Tribunal de Justiça do Rio de Janeiro (2016-2024)

Abstract

This study analyzes the profile of civil cases tried in the second instance for alleged medical malpractice in pediatric patients in the Court of Justice of the State of Rio de Janeiro, from 2016 to 2024, given the scarcity of systematic empirical investigations on the judicialization of medical malpractice in childhood and on the jurisdictional response to alleged care failures in this age group. The general objective was to analyze the profile of these cases, while the specific objectives were to understand the procedural characteristics of lawsuits alleging medical malpractice in pediatric patients aged 0 to 9 years and 11 months, tried in civil courts of second instance, to characterize the medical-clinical profile of the cases, and to analyze changes in the profiles over the pre-COVID (2016–2019), Covid (2020–2021), and post-Covid (2022–2024) periods, classified according to the year of judgment. This is an observational, retrospective, and analytical study based on the documentary analysis of 524 civil judgments, using emerging procedural and care variables, including municipality of origin, processing time, type of claim, emergency relief, alleged damages, appeals, defendant, sentence, type of fault, causal link, compensation ranges, retirement, age group, clinical condition, outcome, and technical-care context, submitted to descriptive and inferential statistical analysis. The results showed that all lawsuits were individual, with a significant geographical concentration in the state capital, and that the Unified Health System was the defendant in approximately 70% of the lawsuits, reflecting the structural role of the public sector in pediatric care. There was a predominance of newborns and infants, who accounted for 81.7% of cases, with emphasis on perinatal conditions, especially neonatal asphyxia, in addition to sepsis, cerebral palsy, and pneumonia, constituting a profile of high clinical severity. In terms of decisions, 74.6% of the lawsuits resulted in a ruling in favor of the victim, reinforcing the centrality of the causal link and expert evidence in medical civil liability. The temporal analysis showed a significant increase in the duration of the proceedings in the post-COVID period, while most clinical and procedural variables remained stable between the periods, with more specific changes in the distribution of clinical outcomes. It is concluded that the Covid-19 pandemic did not substantially alter the clinical profile or the decision-making logic of the judicialization of alleged pediatric medical errors.