ArticlePatient safety in surgery2016
A survey on patients' knowledge and expectations during informed consent for spinal surgery: can we improve the shared decision-making process?
Article in Patient safety in surgery, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
15 citing papers in PubMed, 33 citations in OpenAlex.
- A Standardized Perioperative Care Program and Postoperative Pain, Disability, and Knowledge Among Patients Undergoing Lumbar Spine Surgery in Erbil, Iraq: A Non-Randomized Controlled Study.Health science reports · 2026Article
- Psychologic readiness for adult spinal deformity surgery: practical screening and optimization pathways.Spine deformity · 2026Review
- Requirements for mHealth and Augmented Reality Apps for Patient Education Regarding Colorectal Cancer Surgery: Focus Group Study.JMIR formative research · 2026Article
- Evaluation of the surgical informed consent for elective and emergency surgeries in obstetrics and gynaecology in Saudi Arabia.BMC medical ethics · 2025Article
- Knowledge and associated factors of patients toward informed consent in obstetric and gynecologic surgical procedures at Debre Markos Comprehensive Specialized Hospital, Ethiopia.Frontiers in surgery · 2025Article
- Patient knowledge of surgical informed consent and shared decision-making process among surgical patients in Ethiopia: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Patient safety in surgery · 2024Article
- Informed consent in neurosurgery - Evaluation of current practice and implementation of future strategies.Surgical neurology international · 2024Article
- Knowledge of surgical informed consent and associated factors among patients undergone obstetric and gynecologic surgery at Jimma Medical Center, Jimma, Ethiopia, 2020: an institutional based cross-sectional study.Perioperative medicine (London, England) · 2023Article
- Adaption and validation of simplified Chinese version of the Low Back Pain Knowledge questionnaire (sC-LKQ).Frontiers in public health · 2023Article
- Assessment of health-related quality of life and patient's knowledge in chronic non-specific low back pain.BMC public health · 2021Article
- The Shared Decision-Making Process in the Pharmacological Management of Depression.The patient · 2020Review
- Insight in Information Provision Prior to Obtaining Surgical Informed Consent-by Audiotaping Outpatient Consultations.World journal of surgery · 2019Observational
- Activity demands and instability are the most important factors for recommending to treat ACL injuries with reconstruction.Knee surgery, sports traumatology, arthroscopy : official journal of the ESSKA · 2018Article
- We Need to Talk about Lumbar Total Disc Replacement.International journal of spine surgery · 2018Article
- Revolutionizing Informed Consent: Empowering Patients with Certified Decision Aids.The patient · 2017Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThe informed medical consent in surgery requires to some point basic medical knowledge. The treating physicians while explaining the details and risks of the recommended procedure often imply this. We hypothesized, that patients do not have adequate medical understanding to decide about the ongoing therapy and its potential complications based on knowledge jeopardizing the patients' safety.
methodsWe conducted a retrospective analysis of a prospective database using a multiple choice questionnaire with 10 basic questions about anatomy, clinical symptoms and therapies of spinal diseases in our spine clinic at a German university hospital. Included were all patients at the spine clinic who agreed to the study and to fill in the questionnaire. Furthermore the patients age, mother tongue, the past spinal surgical history, the length of duration of symptoms and the patients education were inquired. The data were analyzed descriptive.
resultsIncluded were 248 patients with an average age of 59 years (16-88 a). 70 % of all patients used German as their mother tongue. 30 % of the included patients already had spinal surgery and suffered on average for 13.4 years because of their spinal disorder. Overall 32.6 % of all questions were answered correctly (range 0.8-68 %). A correlation of correctly answered questions and the patients' age, duration of symptoms, mother tongue, education and past surgical history could not be described.
conclusionThe percentage of correctly answered questions is almost as low as the likelihood of nearness in guessing. Having this in mind the patients do not choose any treatment option based on knowledge. The physicians need to provide more basic knowledge to the patients. This would increase the amount of successful therapies, content patients and the patients safety.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.