title: Risk management in surgery.
abstract: When seeking a patient's informed consent to surgery, it is necessary to ensure that the extent of risk is explained, that the most common risks are described, and that the information given is recorded. Errors in performance of an agreed operation tend to be under-reported; acceptance of guidelines can reduce their incidence but will not eliminate them, and it is vital to deal understandingly with those which do occur.
authors.affiliation: Department of Urology, The Churchill Hospital, Headington, Oxford, U.K.
authors.forename: J C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Smith