Informed consent: do information pamphlets improve post-operative risk-recall in patients undergoing total...

Area of Science:

• Surgical Education
• Informed Consent
• Patient Communication

Background:

• Informed consent requires understanding of risks, complications, and management.
• Effective doctor-patient communication is crucial for managing expectations and outcomes.
• Pre-operative patient education aims to improve understanding and retention of surgical information.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate if procedure-specific handouts improve risk recall after total thyroidectomy.
• To assess the impact of patient education pamphlets on informed consent.
• To examine confounders like anxiety and memory on risk recall.

Main Methods:

• Adult patients undergoing total thyroidectomy were randomized into two groups: verbal consent only (control) or verbal consent plus information pamphlets (intervention).
• Participants completed the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) and Memory Impairment Screen (MIS).
• Risk recall was assessed via questionnaire one week post-operatively.

Main Results:

• No statistically significant difference in overall correct answers between the control (83%) and intervention (80%) groups.
• No significant differences observed in interview duration, time between interviews, or recall test scores.
• No correlation found between pre-operative anxiety/depression scores (HADS) and overall recall scores.

Conclusions:

• Pre-operative information pamphlets alone may not be sufficient to enhance patient understanding of thyroid surgery risks.
• Alternative or supplementary patient education methods, potentially including emerging technologies, warrant further investigation.
• Optimizing patient education is key for informed consent and managing expectations in surgical pathways.