Importance of informed consent defined by General Surgery Associations in Turkey

Informed consent is a term based on the idea that every individual has the right to know every medical intervention that is going to be performed on their own body and to learn the issues that she/he may encounter in case of refusal of intervention, and it also defines the protection of personal rights under the guarantee of law.

The website of Turkish Surgical Association and 25 different websites of surgical associations were evaluated according to general surgery association guide, which was published by the Turkish Surgical Association in 2011.

Four websites of those surveyed include informed consent sections and these were evaluated. A total of 44 informed consent forms were included in this study. Of these, 29 were in Turk Colon and Rectum Surgery Association, 8 were in Turkish Surgery Association, 5 were in Turk Hepatopancreaticobilier Surgery Association, and 4 were in Endocrine Surgery Association. These informed consent forms were evaluated with regard to the aforementioned criteria. The results and also the distribution according to the associations were summarized. A common feature of the informed consent forms was that all of them included the risks of the intervention/operation and complications to be carried out. On the contrary, none of them included approximate time of surgery, information about surgeons, issues that patients should care about before surgery, the section that permits the use of data for scientific purpose, and the time of signing the informed consent form.

We believe that in this context the regulation of informed consent by sub-specialization associations under the flag of Turkish Surgical Association is a very important matter and will standardize informed consents; websites of the associations will be easier to access, and this will be as beneficial for physicians as the patients and also will protect the physicians in probable trials.