Ethical awareness in surgical management

Getting information about disease has been suffering, the management needed, procedure and complication of that management, is the right of the patients. Giving that information to the patients is the responsibility of the physician/surgeons. The objective of this study was to assess the existing awareness of the surgeons and female patients regarding ethical issues of medical practices. This observational study was undertaken in the gynecological department of two tertiary hospital of the capital city of Bangladesh. One hundred fifty five patients were interviewed who were underwent surgical management for different gynecological problems. Mean age of the studied population was 41 (SD+/-10) years. All of them were from lower and lower middle economical classes. Sixty three percents (63%) were illiterate. Consent for the surgery was given by the husband in 52% cases, by son in 22% cases, by herself in 1% case and remaining by other relatives. About 50% of the patients did not know the name of their disease, 75% of them never talked with the surgeon. Only in 31% cases surgeon spontaneously explained them about her disease. Most of them had no knowledge about anaesthesia, operating time, need of blood transfusion, operating complications and long-term effects of the surgery they had. The result of this study showed very poor awareness about medical ethics and patient's right.