What do patients really want to know in informed consent for non-morbid otologic surgery?

Objective: To identify which information patients really want to know in an informed consent for mastoid surgery. Study design: Prospective study; questionnaire survey. Setting: University-based, secondary referral hospital Materials and Methods: 50 patients who underwent the mastoid surgery including canal wall up or canal wall down mastoidectomy were enrolled to the analysis. Patients who underwent the mastoid surgery were asked to identify which information of mastoid surgery they considered to be important for the informed consent prior to the surgery. One month after the discharge, they were asked again to identify which information they considered to be important information for patients to know prior to undergoing mastoid surgery. Results: Postoperative survey showed that patients considered information on the general outline of their disease and treatment process, to be more important than information on postoperative complications. These include: patients' disease status, purpose of the surgery, technical details of the surgery, details of the postoperative course and consequence of non-surgery. The importance of quality of life associated with the surgery was not increased after the surgery. The importance of intracranial infection, CSF leakage and risk of general anesthesia was decreased after the surgery. Conclusion: Most patients want more information about the general outline of their disease and treatment process, than about specific and narrow items like postoperative risks or complications. They were more interested about their disease status, purpose of the surgery, consequence of not doing the surgery, technical details of the surgery and details of postoperative course.