Patient information and coronary angiography: Experience of the Rennes group

The object of this study was to assess the degree of patient information of subjects referred for coronary angiography and their reaction to a detaile d protocol of information. The enquiry was performed in 3 stages : an oral evaluation of the degree of information with a standardised questionnaire; the giving of written docum ents from the French Federation and Society of Cardiology mentioning the ri sks of the procedure; the continuation of the interview with evaluation of the degree of satisfactions with the information provided. Two hundred and thirty one patients referred by cardiologists for non-urgen t coronary angiography were interrogated (175 men, 56 women; mean age 63 ye ars, range: 27-83 years). In the 164 subjects who had never had this invest igation: - 56 (34.1 %) did not appreciate the invasive nature of the procedure - 111 (67.6%) totally ignored the risks of the procedure - 70 (42.6%) were not informed of the possibility of a surgical procedure o r of an angioplasty as a result of the procedure, - 89% were satisfied with the information concerning the risks of the inves tigation. In a second group of 100 patients, the comprehension of the information was checked by the same questionnaire used a posteriori. These results show that patient information is very often incomplete. Despi te some reticence, the new procedures seem to be globally well accepted but would be more effective if used before hospital admission.