[Information and anesthesia: what does the patient desire?].
OBJECTIVE
The aim of the study was to assess the patient's desire for information regarding their preoperative care and to assess the anaesthetists' perception of that desire.


METHODS
Questionnaire.


METHODS
The question: "Would you like to be fully informed about" 13 topics of the perioperative management was asked to 106 patients at the time of the preoperative visit. Two answers were possible: Yes I want to know; No I don't want to know. 22 senior anaesthesists were also interviewed and were asked to speculate about the patients response to each item. Data were compared with those of a similar questionnaire used in different countries.


RESULTS
One hundred patients who underwent general, orthopaedic, urologic surgery were interviewed. Patients sought information most frequently concerning: postoperative pain and postoperative recovery (88%), time for ambulation (83%), duration of anaesthesia (77%) and different methods of anaesthesia (77%). Only 63% patients desired to be informed about all possible complications of anaesthesia. Senior anaesthesists had a correct perception of patients desire for information about the 4 important items but not for the complications of anaesthesia.


CONCLUSIONS
Our study suggests that an exhaustive information about anaesthesia is not wished by every patients.
Asehnoune
K
K
Département d'anesthésie-réanimation chirurgicale, hôpital de Bicêtre, Le Kremlin-Bicêtre.
Albaladejo
P
P
Smail
N
N
Heriche
C
C
Sitbon
P
P
Gueneron
J P
JP
Chailloleau
C
C
Benhamou
D
D
D000367:Age Factors; D000768:Anesthesia, General / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000379:methods; D000776:Anesthesiology; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D003289:Convalescence; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010149:Postoperative Pain / Q000503:physiopathology; D010353:Patient Education as Topic; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D012737:Sex Factors; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013997:Time Factors