Patient recollections of perioperative anaesthesia risks

There is widespread variation as to the method of presentation of informed anaesthetic consent with little empirical data on the nature of communication and how much information is retained. At a dedicated anaesthesia pre-admission clinic, 149 patients undergoing elective surgery under general anaesthesia were both verbally informed and shown written information about four major and three minor anaesthesia risks. The major risks were death, pneumonia, heart attack and stroke. The minor risks were dental damage, nausea and vomiting. On the day of scheduled surgery, retention of information about these anaesthetic risks was examined. Thirty-eight patients (26%) could not recall any anaesthesia risks, 55 patients (37%) could not recall any major risks and 126 patients (84%) could not recall any minor risks. Our findings indicate that patients should receive a second explanation on the day of surgery, even if informed consent was provided only two weeks earlier.