Patients' demand for information and awareness of their right to decide on undergoing or refusing surgery. Experience in two surgical departments

Abstract

Informed consent as the physician´s obligation and the patient’s right is expressly recognized by the national law, mainly as from 2008, when Act Number 18335 was passed. However, certain difficulties have been seen in the information process and in connection with obtaining consent. Patients who underwent surgery were consulted by means of a closed, anonymous and self-administered survey as to the specific aspects they considered relevant to know and how familiar they were with their right to be informed. Over 80% of the patients in the survey stated they were interested in learning about treatment alternatives and the most frequent complications arising from treatment. Likewise, they thought it would be appropriate to know about the procedure they would undergo and the options available to modify the kind of surgery once it had started. Under 105 of patients stated they were interested in learning about life-threatening risks, the chance of a needing to operate again and receiving information through pictures and illustrations showing the procedure. The study points out 9 out of ten patients admitted they knew about their right to be informed about different aspect of the surgery and that almost half of them (48%) stated they needed to trust the decisions made by physicians, regardless of the quality of the information received.