[Diagnostic error in the clinical area. A discussion contribution]

Regarding the great number and the possible consequences for the patient it's surprising that there is almost no discussion concerning wrong diagnoses in medicine. Based on the experience of a working team at a center for general pediatric surgery we tried to recognize the most common mechanisms leading to wrong or insufficient diagnoses. For better illustration we describe the histories of six patients; in their cases the diagnostic errors could probably have been avoided by an exact examination procedure. One way to decrease pitfalls in daily medicin life seems to be the reflexion upon the errors and try to minimize them and their sources.