A risk-specific anesthesia consent form may hinder the informed consent process

To evaluate the effect of a preprinted, risk-specific consent form on the amount of anesthetic risk information patients retain from the preoperative interview.

Postoperative survey of consecutive inpatients to determine risk information retained before and after implementation of a preprinted anesthesia consent form, using standard preoperative risk discussions.

Inpatient units of a university medical center.

Two groups of patients, both of whom received a standard oral discussion of anesthetic risk information, were compared. Patients in the control group (125 consecutive inpatients) received this information only orally and were interviewed two weeks prior to implementation of a preprinted anesthesia consent form. Patients in the study group (92 consecutive inpatients) received this information orally and via a preprinted consent form and were interviewed between the fourth and sixth weeks after implementation of a preprinted anesthesia consent form.

Anesthesia residents discussed five standard anesthetic risks with elective, adult inpatients (n = 233) during a two-week period immediately before and between the fourth and sixth weeks after instituting the mandatory use of a risk-specific anesthesia consent form. These patients were interviewed postoperatively by one of the authors to determine the amount of anesthesia risk information they retained.

Results of the postoperative survey showed that patients in the control group retained more information concerning anesthetic risks than did those in the study group (33% vs 19%, p less than 0.01).

To improve the informed consent process, either a better method of presenting the preprinted, risk-specific consent form or another method of simultaneously conveying and documenting risk information is needed.