A back surgeon, working at Gap hospital, has just been suspended by the medical hierarchy for at least six months, RTL has learned.
According to the radio, the National Center for Management of Hospital Practitioners pronounced this sanction because the doctor would have used a surgical technique not validated in France.
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The operation, called disc cementoplasty, involved injecting cement into the discs of the spine to strengthen it, while only application in the vertebrae (spinal cementoplasty) is currently allowed, according to scientific authorities.
Doctor Gilles Norotte would have carried out this operation on more than one hundred patients, between 2015 and 2017. Some of them, who say that they were not warned of the use of this technique before the operation, claim sequelae due to product leaks around the spine, with problems with nerves and arteries, and a risk of bleeding.
Six patients would have lodged a complaint, and a total of twelve would be grouped together.
A petition in support of the suspended doctor
Contacted, the hospital declined to comment.
The surgeon reacted strongly, believing that the authorities are giving in to a smear campaign: "
This is a perfectly known surgical technique
", he thus maintains to RTL, affirming that the operation is performed elsewhere in France, in particular at the Bordeaux University Hospital and at the Pitié-Salpêtrière hospital.
"
I am the victim of a rather odious disinformation campaign and I find it scandalous
", he denounced.
An investigation was launched by the prosecutor of Gap last October.
According to several media, internal tensions in the service would have led a colleague of Gilles Norotte to attack him with the authorities.
Experts sent by the Regional Health Agency declared that the doctor had "
a technique not in accordance with the data of surgical science at the time of the facts
".
However, according to RTL, many doctors at the hospital are asking for his reinstatement.
A petition was also launched in support of the suspended surgeon, signed by more than 500 people this Friday morning.
“
A practitioner recognized by his peers, he is the only hospital specialist in the spine in our region.
This suspension entails a loss of opportunity for patients and in particular for trauma and emergencies
”explains the text, referring to“
a defamatory media campaign
”.