Publication:

A study of adequacy of informed consent before caesarean section in a tertiary care hospital

Background Informed consent is an ethical and legal requirement and is practiced before all the surgical procedures. Caesarean section is the commonest obstetric surgery so, this study was aimed to assess the adequacy of informed consent in patients who underwent caesarean section at SMGS Hospital, GMC, Jammu.

Methods A cross-sectional study was done. A total of 230 patients were included in the study. A pre-tested and pre-validated questionnaire was used for the study. The data were expressed as percentage of proportion.

Results 230 patients participated in the study. About 96.95% patients knew the name of the procedure. 91.73% patients were informed about the indication of the surgery. 95.21% of the patients were aware about the benefits of surgery and about 93.41% of the patients were knowing risks of surgery. About 83.04% patients were informed about the procedure of the surgery. About 94.78% and 94.34% of the patients were aware about the need for the blood transfusion and future pregnancy options. Only about 4.35% of the patients were informed about the requirement and type of anaesthesia. 22.18% of the patients knew about the choice for alternate procedure and merely 2.18% of the patients were informed about the right to refuse the procedure.

Conclusions It was found that majority of the patients were well informed about the procedure and the related consequences. Still we can improve some elements of the consent process which can be done by proper awareness and training of health care professionals.