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Informed consent in pediatric surgery: Do parents understand the risks?

Daniel P Nadeau1, Jeremy N Rich, Scott E Brietzke

  • 1Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Washington, DC 20307-5001, USA.

Archives of Otolaryngology--Head & Neck Surgery
|March 17, 2010
PubMed

Insights

Parents often forget surgical risks for pediatric ear, nose, and throat (ENT) surgery. Using detailed informational aids significantly improves parent understanding and recall of these crucial ENT surgery risks.

Area of Science:

  • Pediatric Surgery
  • Medical Education
  • Patient Communication

Background:

  • Informed consent is crucial for pediatric surgery.
  • Parental comprehension of surgical risks can be variable.
  • Effective communication strategies are needed to improve patient understanding.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To evaluate the impact of informational aids on parental understanding of pediatric ear, nose, and throat (ENT) surgery risks.
  • To compare risk recall between parents receiving standard counseling versus those receiving enhanced counseling with informational aids.

Main Methods:

  • Prospective, randomized trial at an academic tertiary care center.
  • Parents of children undergoing ENT surgery were randomized to standard or enhanced informed consent.
  • Questionnaires assessed general knowledge and recall of 9 specific surgical risks pre- and post-counseling.

Main Results:

  • Parents receiving informational aids demonstrated significantly higher risk recall scores preoperatively and postoperatively.
  • A negative correlation was observed between parental education level and risk recall.
  • Maternal parents recalled significantly more surgical risks than paternal parents.

Conclusions:

  • Parental recall of counseled surgical risks for pediatric ENT procedures is often incomplete.
  • Detailed informational aids demonstrably enhance parental understanding of surgical risks.
  • Factors such as parental education level and maternal versus paternal roles may influence risk recall.
Abstract

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