COMPARISION OF INFORMED CONSENTS IN PLASTIC SURGERY: SHOULD WE HAVE AN INTERNATIONAL GOLD STANDARD?

Consent to surgeries is one of the mainstays in our practices before proceeding with surgery. There is great emphasis in our practices of the need for informed consenting of patients. In this paper the consents of a number of common cosmetic procedures were reviewed and compared amongst clinicians. There was a split amongst clinicians in the way they consent their patients. One group, opted for consenting patients on individual basis, as they come along; another group attempted a standardised consent for the common procedures. There was still a clear discrepancy in the contents of the standard consent among different clinicians. Our results will be presented. The lack of consistency amongst consents was striking. With the increasing trend of litigation, there is a call to have consistent universal consents for all the common plastic surgery procedures. This will not only ensure that standardised information is provided to our patients but is also a protective tool for the surgeon, ensuring that worldwide recommended consenting is being followed. We propose that this idea to be adopted by the national and international bodies, with a view of producing standardised consents.