Cataract surgery and consent

Abstract

Patient recall of specific details related to cataract surgery was poor immediately after consent was obtained and deteriorated postoperatively. Despite this, most patients reported they were well informed about surgery and had little anxiety. Patients accept the need for surgical training if they recall a discussion of this at the time of consent. If they do not, many are very unhappy regardless of surgical outcome. These findings strongly support an explicit discussion of surgical training as part of the consent process.