Purpose: A randomised controlled trial of the effect of providing written information on recall from informed consent counselling for cataract surgery.

Methods: The authors investigated the effect of giving written material on information recall from informed consent counselling for cataract surgery. Fifty English-speaking patients who underwent non-urgent cataract extraction at Flinders Medical Centre, South Australia, were prospectively enrolled. Systematic counselling for cataract surgery was provided, with a written copy of the content given to a randomly selected group of patients (n = 24). All subjects completed a questionnaire after counselling and again at two weeks after surgery to test their satisfaction with, and recall of, information provided.

Results: Patients were found to be satisfied with the amount of information they received and most were able to recall details about the cataract surgery procedure. However, many could not recall success rates or complication rates and only a minority could list any complication. The provision of written information did not significantly alter recall (p>0.05). Recall was significantly better immediately after counselling than two weeks after surgery (p<0.05). Younger patients also had significantly better recall (p<0.05).

Figure 1. Recall of individual complications

Conclusions: Patients were happy with the information they had been given but did not remember enough from the informed consent process to satisfy legal requirements.

J Law Med. 2006 May;13(4):496-504
Accepted for publication: 20 January 2006

Konrad Pesudovs, PhD
Carolyn K Luscombe, BAppSc(Orth)
Douglas J Coster, FRANZCO AO
NH&MRC Centre for Clinical Eye Research, Department of Ophthalmology, Flinders Medical Centre and Flinders University, Bedford Park, South Australia, 5042, Australia