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| LETTER TO EDITOR |
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| Year : 2017 | Volume
: 33
| Issue : 3 | Page : 424 |
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Reply…Is it time to separate consent for anesthesia from consent for surgery?
Summit Bloria
Department of Anesthesia, PGIMER, Chandigarh, India
| Date of Web Publication | 11-Sep-2017 |
Correspondence Address:
Summit Bloria
C/O 3245, SECTOR 15D, Chandigarh
India
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None  | Check |
DOI: 10.4103/joacp.JOACP_160_17
How to cite this article:
Bloria S. Reply…Is it time to separate consent for anesthesia from consent for surgery?. J Anaesthesiol Clin Pharmacol 2017;33:424 |
How to cite this URL:
Bloria S. Reply…Is it time to separate consent for anesthesia from consent for surgery?. J Anaesthesiol Clin Pharmacol [serial online] 2017 [cited 2021 Mar 2];33:424. Available from: https://www.joacp.org/text.asp?2017/33/3/424/214296 |
Sir,
The article by Singh [1] made an interesting study and illuminated us on the very important topic of obtaining an informed consent before administering anesthesia. While the authors discussed the state of affairs in the developed countries, the situation in our country is all the more worse. A study conducted in 2013 to quantify awareness toward "anesthesia and anesthesiologist" in rural areas demonstrated that even with an extremely low threshold, only 36.4% of population could be classified as aware, and the most common source of their information about anesthesia was not anesthesiologist but surgeon.[2] Another survey in urban population revealed that <50% of population knew of anesthesiology being a separate medical branch.[3] In a population which is unaware of the presence of anesthesiologist, thinking of obtaining a valid consent for administering anesthesia appears to be a distant dream.
Even we, the anesthesiologists, appear to be unsure of what exactly constitutes a valid informed consent. A survey conducted among Indian anesthesiologists revealed that while 90% among them felt the need for a separate written informed consent for anesthesia, only 14% implemented this consent. Only less than half of them discussed with the patients the frequent complications of general anesthesia or the potential neurological complications of regional anesthesia.[4]
Considering all these facts, I wonder whether the time indeed is ripe for us to dream of obtaining a separate consent for anesthesia, in Indian context at least.
Financial support and sponsorship
Nil.
Conflict of interest
There are no conflicts of interest.
| References | |  |
| 1. | Singh TS. Is it time to separate consent for anesthesia from consent for surgery? J Anaesthesiol Clin Pharmacol 2017;33:112-3.  |
| 2. | Singh P, Kumar A, Trikha A. Rural perspective about anesthesia and anesthesiologist: A cross-sectional study. J Anaesthesiol Clin Pharmacol 2013;29:228-34. [ PUBMED] [Full text] |
| 3. | Mathur SK, Dube SK, Jain S. Knowledge about anaesthesia and anaesthesiologist amongst general population in India. Indian J Anaesth 2009;53:179-86. [ PUBMED] [Full text] |
| 4. | Ranganathan P, Patil V. Informed consent for anesthesia: A survey among Indian anesthesiologists. J Anesth 2011;25:633-4. |
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