This article is only available in the PDF format. Download the PDF to view the article, as well as its associated figures and tables.
In Reply.
—We appreciate Dr Koch's letter. We list the potential risks and complications on the informed consent sheet signed prior to surgery. Rare is the patient who reads it before signing, despite our urging. Informed consent should include more than merely the risks and complications, since an understanding of the disorder, the surgery, the charges, and the postoperative recommendations is also important. These aspects of informed consent are not included on most forms required by hospitals. Dr Koch may be correct that a printed copy of all information would help, but we doubt it. As more and more information is provided to most patients, fewer and fewer patients read such material.The letter by Dr Branower raises different questions. He is correct in saying that question 1 is a two-part question; however, we accepted a broad range of answers as being correct. Principally, we wanted patients to recognize that