Consent: assessing and communicating risk

The consent process is a fundamental part of modern medicine, but can be challenging for both surgeons and patients. It involves a complex interaction of many factors, including surgical and individual patient factors as well as legal and ethical considerations. Informed consent requires each patient to have a thorough understanding of the particular risks posed by their recommended treatment. Individual risk assessment is therefore of fundamental importance, but to be sufficiently accurate, population data must be combined with individual patient factors plus the risks of the proposed procedure. Individuals interpret information about risk subjectively, and it is important for surgeons to use methods of communication that minimize bias and allow clear understanding. By using combinations of numerical and descriptive terms, examples from other areas of life, and visual aids, and by avoiding vague terms and confusing statistical data, surgeons can help patients to understand the risks more completely.