Estudio del proceso de información en el paciente hospitalizado intervenido quirúrgicamente por cirugía ortopédica y traumatología

Abstract

Introduction: Information is the cornerstone of the doctor-patient relationship, the basis of any medical action. It is a patient&apos;s basic right, and so is regulated by the Spanish law on patient autonomy, as well as by the code of ethics. The information is usually transmitted orally by the responsible physician. When dealing with a surgical procedure, the information must be transmitted in writing as well as orally. However, transmitting the information is not sufficient: the patient must be able to understand and remember it. Hypothesis and Objectives: Determining which factors affect the patient&apos;s comprehension of the information regarding the surgical procedure and the satisfaction of the patient that has undergone Trauma and Orthopedics surgery. Material and Method: A prospective, single-center, observational and descriptive study carried out through an ad hoc designed questionnaire, filled out by 312 inpatients that had undergone surgery. The veracity of the patients&apos; answers has been verified after the fact with their medical records. The SPSS software was used to perform the statistical analysis and a p<0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: A non-negligible percentage of patients is not aware of key aspects of the surgical procedure, such as the diagnostic (30.7%), the name of the operated bone or joint (23.7%), the kind of surgery (45.2%), the use of an implant (30.8%) and the name of the surgeon (24.1%). Other issues like risks and alternatives to surgery are unknown to the majority of the patients (74.7% and 72.3% respectively). Globally a 17.3% of our sample has insufficient knowledge, being the factors associated at univariate level: old age (p<0.001), lack of education (p=0.018) and not having signed the informed consent (p=0.002); and at a multivariate level: age (p=0.002), lack of education (p=0.048), not having signed the informed consent (p=0.015) and male gender (p=0.008). On another note, 79.4% of the patients relate either good or very good satisfaction with the information provided, so have found no relation between adequate knowledge and satisfaction with the information. Conclusions: It is necessary to be more proactive when informing a patient with the factors detailed about a surgical procedure in order to improve comprehension.