[Impact of a written document for preoperative information on the use of Internet by parents]

Preoperative information is a legal and ethical obligation. Very few studies have evaluated the preoperative information method in pediatrics. Having a child operated on is stressful for parents. The use of Internet to look for data on the pathology and its treatment is frequent, but often unprofitable and sometimes even harmful. This study aimed to measure the impact of a leaflet, which supports spoken information in preoperative consultation, on parents' use of the Internet before surgery.

Prospective study including 178 patients of outpatient surgery, randomized into two groups: spoken information alone versus spoken information supported by a personalized leaflet, which is then handed out to the parents. The messages were identical: physiopathology, risks without treatment, surgical technique, possible complications, description of the hospitalization day, and postoperative care. Parental evaluation was carried out with self-administered questionnaires after the preoperative consultation, then on the day of surgery. At each moment the rate of Internet use, its reasons, and the benefits were evaluated.

The written document significantly reduced the use of the Internet by parents regardless of the child's age, their degree of anxiety, their level of understanding, and the time between consultation and the intervention.

This study confirms the significant impact of the leaflet as a communication tool in pediatric surgery and the substantial utility for parents. This encourages us to generalize this method to other pediatric surgery acts.