Iatrogenic

Iatrogenesis (from the Greek for "brought forth by the healer") refers to any effect on a person, resulting from any activity of one or more persons acting as healthcare professionals or promoting products or services as beneficial to health, that does not support a goal of the person affected.

Some iatrogenic effects are clearly defined and easily recognized, such as a complication following a surgical procedure (e.g., lymphedema as a result of breast cancer surgery). Less obvious ones, such as complex drug interactions, may require significant investigation to identify.

While some have advocated using 'iatrogenesis' to refer to all 'events caused by the health care delivery team', whether 'positive or negative', consensus limits use of 'iatrogenesis' to adverse, or, most broadly, to unintended outcomes.

Causes of iatrogenesis include:

Unlike an adverse event, an iatrogenic effect is not always harmful. For example, a scar created by surgery is said to be iatrogenic even though it does not represent improper care and may not be troublesome.

Professionals who may cause harm to patients include physicians, pharmacists, nurses, dentists, psychologists, psychiatrists, medical laboratory scientists and therapists. Iatrogenesis can also result from complementary and alternative medicine treatments.

Globally as of 2013 an estimated 20 million negative effects from treatment occurred. It is estimated that 142,000 people died in 2013 from adverse effects of medical treatment up from 94,000 in 1990.

Examples of iatrogenesis:

Iatrogenic conditions do not necessarily result from medical errors, such as mistakes made in surgery, or the prescription or dispensing of the wrong therapy, such as a drug. In fact, intrinsic and sometimes adverse effects of a medical treatment are iatrogenic. For example, radiation therapy and chemotherapy — necessarily aggressive for therapeutic effect — frequently produce such iatrogenic effects as hair loss, anemia, vomiting, nausea, brain damage, lymphedema, infertility, etc. The loss of function resulting from the required removal of a diseased organ is iatrogenic, as in the case of diabetes consequential to the removal of all or part of the pancreas.

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