Informed consent for cataract surgery: What patients do and do not understand

Abstract

Patients about to consent to cataract surgery had a reasonable grasp of basic terminology. A standardized IC discussion was effective in educating patients. Patients considered IC to be important and expected all pertinent information to be communicated. Patient recall of outcome probabilities was poorer than that of nonnumeric facts; however, memory decay may be slowed by providing supporting take-home literature.