Parental recall of anesthesia information: informing the practice of informed consent.

backgroundInformed consent is a process of sharing information that facilitates the individual patient's right to self-determination. Despite its importance in anesthesia practice, the process of informed consent is rarely audited or examined. As such, there are only limited data with respect to anesthesia consent practices, particularly within the pediatric setting. We designed this study, therefore, to examine the information that parents seek regarding their child's anesthesia, what they are told, who told them, and how much of the information they recall.

methodsParents of children undergoing a variety of elective surgical procedures were recruited while their child was in surgery. Parents were interviewed to determine their recall of their child's anesthetic plan, postoperative pain management, and attendant risks and benefits; and then surveyed regarding what information was sought and received, and how satisfied they were with the information.

resultsTwo hundred sixty-three parents were included. Although the majority (96.2%) recalled receiving information about how their child's anesthesia would be administered, only 51.1% recalled being given information about the risks of anesthesia and 42.4% recalled how side effects would be managed. Composite scores for parental recall of anesthesia information were generally poor (4.9 ± 2.5 of 10). Furthermore, 50% and 55.7% of parents had no recall of the risks or benefits of anesthesia, respectively, and 82.9% could not recall pain medication side effects. Recall of consent information provided by anesthesia providers was significantly better than when provided by surgical personnel (P < 0.01).

conclusionsResults showed that disclosure of anesthesia information to parents was often incomplete, and their recall thereof, was poor. The finding that recall of consent information provided by anesthesia providers was better than when provided by surgical personnel may serve to further the debate regarding the appropriate vehicles for anesthesia consent.