[Patient education before orthopedic elective interventions. "The Lagenthal model of 3-step patient education"]

There is still quite a controverseY when and how an informed consent should be obtained from a patient in the surgical field. As has been stated of the federal court the patient need to be given that information which is understandable to him and which will not cause him undue anxiety. This information has to be sufficient for the decision whether to proceeD or decline a surgical procedure. The federal courts are therefore asking for the optimal patient consent not necessarily the total and complete revelation during the patient information. For this reason the act of obtaining an informed consent was thought to be turned into a scientific question in identifying the base from optimal quality of giving informed consent respecting at the same time the principal of evidence based medicine. The support presents a sample of an oral and written consent-form given in three stages as it is currently being used in the orthopaedic service of the Langenthal hospital. 100 patients were given this type of a consent and were later on asked for their opinion of acceptance. Most of the patients felt to be sufficiently informed on their procedure after having undergone a three times repeated interview as well as having been given a consent form including hand-drawings concerning their particular procedure. The advantages as well as the disadvantage of this type of consent form are being discussed.