Muhammad Farhan Amin, Masood Jawaid, Shafiqur Rehman, Mudassir, Hina, Saad Bader Zakai.
An audit of information provided during preoperative informed consent.
Pak J Med Sci Jan ;22(1):10-3.

Objective: To find out preoperative informed consent practice in a tertiary care public sector teaching hospital. Settings: General Surgical Units of Civil Hospital Karachi Design: Prospective observational study. Duration: January 2005 to March 2005 Patients and Methods: Patients who had undergone elective surgery were interviewed randomly during the study period under routine practice conditions. All the patients were asked a set of standard questions post operatively related to the information they were provided before the procedure as a part of standard informed consent practice. Questionnaire included the patient`s knowledge about pathology, operative risks, type of anaesthesia given with its risks, alternate treatment option, results of no treatment, patient`s satisfaction about the information given and whether consent form was signed. Results: A total of 200 randomly chosen patients (121 males and 79 females) were included in the study. In 16 (8%) of patients the operative surgeons were involved in taking consent themselves. Only 90 (45%) of patients were told about the nature and purpose of procedure and 89 (44.5%) of patients knew about the possible complications of surgery. 143 (71.5%) of patients were told about the type of anesthesia required but only 30 (15%) were informed about the risks of anaesthesia. 40 (20%) of patients were allowed questions to be asked while taking consent. Interestingly, most of the patients 156 (78%) were still satisfied by the information provided to them during informed consent. Conclusion: This study highlights the poor quality of patient knowledge about surgical procedures and the scarce information provided. The current informed consent practice which is being practiced by the doctors in a public sector teaching hospital of Karachi is below standard to international and ethical acceptability. Yet, a large number of patients were satisfied by the information provided during the informed consent process.

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