Beyond the Signature: Informed Consent from a Legal Perspective and Its Implications for Plastic Surgery

Informed consent is the principal tool that bridges the gap between clinical practice and our society's ethical ideals. The intricacies of informed consent, however, are frequently misunderstood, and its effective implementation can be challenging in practice. The continuous stream of innovations, wide array of procedures, and other characteristics inherent to the practice of plastic surgery compound the challenges of implementing informed consent. Unfortunately, there remains a dearth of literature to provide a comprehensive overview of informed consent as it relates to plastic surgery. In this article, the authors highlight the history, legal components, and challenges of informed consent within plastic surgery and offer recommendations on how to approach them. A deeper understanding of informed consent helps enhance patient care, mitigates unnecessary malpractice risk, and leads to better physician-patient relationships.