INFORMED CONSENT IN INDIAN PATIENTS

It is commonly believed that patients in India do not need to be told about their operations as they are unable to understand the complexiti es and forget the salient facts soon afterwards. Obtaining informed co nsent is therefore considered to be an unnecessary ritual. We studied 100 consecutive patients undergoing elective major abdominal operation s and asked them 5 days after their operations to recall certain detai ls about the procedure which had been explained to them preoperatively . Seventy per cent of the patients recalled the relevant data. The abi lity was the same in males and females (67% and 69%) but the older, le ss educated acid poorer patients performed worse than the others. Nine ty-eight per cent of the patients appreciated being given the informat ion as it reduced their anxiety about the operation. Indian patients a re able to comprehend and should be informed about the details of thei r operation. Particular care should be taken during explanation to the old, poor and illiterate. In these informed consent should be a conti nuous process rather than a single event and the information should al so be given to a younger and more educated relative.