Impact of Multimedia on Patient Comprehension in Thyroid Surgery: A Randomized Trial

Area of Science:

• Surgical Education
• Patient Decision-Making
• Health Communication

Background:

• Informed consent is crucial for patient autonomy in surgical procedures.
• Traditional verbal consent may not fully equip patients with necessary knowledge for complex decisions like thyroidectomy.
• Augmenting standard consent with visual aids can potentially enhance patient understanding and decision quality.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the effectiveness of the Thyroid Informed Surgical Consent Augmenting Video (TISCAV) compared to standard verbal consent.
• To assess TISCAV's impact on knowledge retention, decisional conflict, anxiety, and satisfaction in thyroidectomy patients.
• To determine if video-based consent is a safe adjunct to traditional methods.

Main Methods:

• A randomized controlled trial was conducted with 49 adult patients undergoing thyroid surgery.
• Patients were assigned to either standard verbal consent or TISCAV plus standard consent.
• Knowledge, anxiety, decisional conflict, and satisfaction were assessed pre- and post-operatively using validated scales.

Main Results:

• Both TISCAV and standard consent significantly improved patient knowledge acquisition.
• No significant differences in knowledge gains were observed between the intervention and control groups.
• While TISCAV showed a transient increase in decisional conflict and decrease in satisfaction for patients with indeterminate pathology, these effects resolved postoperatively.

Conclusions:

• Both TISCAV and standard consent effectively enhance patient knowledge regarding thyroidectomy.
• Video-based consent tools like TISCAV may be safely integrated as an adjunct to verbal consent.
• Transient preoperative effects on decisional conflict and satisfaction in specific patient subgroups did not impact long-term outcomes.