Consent: an event or a memory in lumbar spinal surgery? A multi-centre, multi-specialty prospective study of documentation and patient recall of consent content

Study design Prospective, multi-centre, multi-specialty medical notes review and patient interview. Purpose The consenting process is an important communication tool which also carries medico-legal implications. While written consent is a pre-requisite before spinal surgery in the UK, the standard and effectiveness of the process have not been assessed previously. This study assesses standard of written consent for elective lumbar decompressive surgery for degenerative disc disease across different regions and specialties in the UK; level of patient recall of the consent content; and identifies factors which affect patient recall. Methods Consent forms of 153 in-patients from 4 centres a, b, c, d were reviewed. Written documentation of intended benefits, alternative treatments and operative risks was assessed. Of them, 108 patients were interviewed within 24 h before or after surgeries to assess recall. Results The written documentation rates of the operative risks showed significant inter-centre variations in haemorrhage and sphincter disturbance ( P = 0.000), but not for others. Analysis of pooled data showed variations in written documentation of risks ( P