INFORMED CONSENT AND PATIENTS RIGHTS FOR SELF-DETERMINATION IN ANESTHESIOLOGY - REVIEW OF THE AUSTRIAN AND GERMAN JURISDICTION

Informed consent is currently an ethical, medical and legal requiremen t. An increase in public discussion of real or supposed malpractice ha s led to critical attitude in patients and increased demands on inform ed consent by the courts. Unfortunately, the legal requirements of inf ormed consent have developed from atypical situations involving dissat isfied and injured patients rather than from the more usual occurrence s of physicians helping patients with subsequent patient satisfaction. In addition, laws have not set forth clear guidelines for physicians to follow. We review the elements of informed consent based on current Austrian and German jurisdiction in the particular field of anesthesi ology and summarize the legal and medical realities in order to point out specific criteria for decision making.