Medico-legal aspects of hysterectomy

Understanding the lawful implementations of surgical procedures, such as hysterectomy, raises practical questions concerning legal relations between a doctor and his patient, and consequences of this relationship, which may be legally relevant. The modern legal theory and practice consider doctors and patients to be partners. Medical practitioners performing surgical procedures are obliged to obtain informed consent. They are also required to inform their patients about indications, course of the operative procedure, postoperative treatment, possible complications during and after the procedure, and quality of life after the operation. Informed conversation should take into account the age, mental status and patient's intellectual abilities. Legal consequences ofsurgical procedures Malpractice litigation mostly concers medical error and negligence. Medical errors should not be confused with ineffective outcome, or complicated postoperative course. Even if the surgical procedure was followed correctly and uneventful outcome took place, there might be some problems. A patient has a right to receive complete information from a physician about the specific nature of a proposed treatment. A physician has an obligation to elucidate and justify, treatment he proposes. Certain codification of all operative procedures may facilitate this task. Codification instructions about procedures, in this case hysterectomy, must include indications for a certain type of hysterectomy (subtotal, total, radical), as well as for the operative technique (abdominal, vaginal, laparoscopic). Patient information brochures should be available in print, and include information about indications and potential risks associated with the proposed surgical procedure. In this way, it is possible to prevent the inconveniences which may arise from insufficient knowledge and information about surgical procedures.