Information et anesthésie: Que souhaite le patient?

Objective: The aim of the study was to assess the patient's desire for information regarding their preoperative care and to assess the anaesthetists'perception of that desire. Study design: Questionnaire. Methods: The question: 'Would you like to be fully informed about' 13 topics of the perioperative management was asked to 106 patients at the time of the preoperative visit. Two answers were possible: Yes I want to know ; No I don't want to know. 22 senior anaesthesists were also interviewed and were asked to speculate about the patients response to each item. Data were compared with those of a similar questionnaire used in different countries. Results: One hundred patients who underwent general, orthopaedic, urologic surgery were interviewed. Patients sought information most frequently concerning: Postoperative pain and postoperative recovery (88%), time for ambulation (83%), duration of anaesthesia (77%) and different methods of anaesthesia (77%). Only 63% patients desired to be informed about all possible complications of anaesthesia. Senior anaesthesists had a correct perception of patients desire for information about the 4 important items but not for the complications of anaesthesia. Conclusion: Our study suggests that an exhaustive information about anaesthesia is not wished by every patients.