Healthy subjects' knowledge of surgical complications: a hospital-based survey

Abstract

Background/aim: There is an ongoing debate about how much a patient should know about serious or frequently occurring risks of their surgery. In this study, we evaluated healthy subjects' perspectives on knowledge of serious surgical complications.

Materials and methods: Three hundred and thirty healthy subjects (151 women, 179 men; mean age: 43.6 ± 17.3 years) were surveyed with the study questionnaire. Social profile, surgical history of the healthy subjects, and presence of a relative while giving preoperative consent were assessed.

Results: Only 23.5% (39/166) of the subjects were informed about all the potential complications of their previous surgical operation and 44.9% (73/166) did not get any preoperative consent on surgical complications. A statistically significant percentage of subjects who did not get proper information about the serious complications involved in their surgery indicated a desire for preoperative informed consent (97.0%, 128/132, P = 0.0001).

Conclusion: The results indicated that a significant percentage of the subjects wanted to be informed of the potential complications of a surgery in the presence of a relative (73.9%, 192/260, P = 0.009). Involving a relative in preoperative consent may have a positive effect on the patient and can increase the level of postoperative recall of the risks.