Anaesthesia Information—What Patients Want to Know

Abstract

We developed and introduced into clinical practice a leaflet to improve the delivery of information to patients before obtaining their consent to anaesthesia. The amount of information needs to be what a "reasonable" patient thinks appropriate; therefore we tested patients' responses to three levels of information: "full" disclosure, "standard" disclosure (as contained in our leaflet) and "minimal" disclosure.Forty-five patients scheduled to undergo cardiac surgery were enrolled in the study. None of the information sheets caused a significant change in state anxiety score and only the "full" disclosure significantly increased knowledge about anaesthesia (P=0.016). All leaflets were easy to understand. When only one leaflet was provided 64-73% of patients thought the content was "just right", whereas when all three leaflets were viewed together, 63% of patients thought the "minimal" leaflet withheld too much information.

Anesthesiologist's role in relieving patient's anxiety

“…Interestingly, anesthesiologists feel that too little or too much information can increase patient's anxiety score than what appropriate information should be given to patient without increasing the anxiety. [192021] Usually, patients are concern about the anticipated anesthetic complications, surgical techniques, success of operation, fear of being unconscious, pain and weakness in any part of the body postoperatively, and sometime even death, which increases the anxiety. Coming out of anesthetic drugs occupy the biggest portion of anxiety in patient's mind.…”

Disclosure of Risks Associated With Regional Anesthesia: A Survey of Academic Regional Anesthesiologists

“…4 Additionally, previous studies that have examined which anesthetic risks patients would like to know about are conflicting. 5,6 Many patients prefer simple explanations about the main risks and benefits, although a considerable number of patients wish full-risk disclosure. Nonetheless, anesthesiologists have a duty to accurately disclose the significant risks of the proposed anesthetic to their patients, including those that happen relatively frequently (e.g., local pain/discomfort) as well as those that happen rarely but are severe in nature (e.g., permanent neuropathy and paralysis).…”

What patients want to know before they have cataract surgery

“…3 Recent studies have examined what patients want to know before consenting to anaesthesia, general surgery, and otolaryngological surgery. [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12] However, there is no such data for ophthalmic surgery (PubMed and Medline searches). The aim of this study was to clarify what preoperative information patients wanted before they had cataract surgery.…”