Importance of informed consent defined by General Surgery Associations in Turkey

Özet

Objective: Informed consent is a term based on the idea that every individual has the right to know every medicalintervention that is going to be performed on their own body and to learn the issues that she/he may encounterin case of refusal of intervention, and it also defines the protection of personal rights under the guarantee of law.Material and Methods: The website of Turkish Surgical Association and 25 different websites of surgical associationswere evaluated according to general surgery association guide, which was published by the Turkish Surgical Associationin 2011.Results: Four websites of those surveyed include informed consent sections and these were evaluated. A total of 44informed consent forms were included in this study. Of these, 29 were in Turk Colon and Rectum Surgery Association,8 were in Turkish Surgery Association, 5 were in Turk Hepatopancreaticobilier Surgery Association, and 4 werein Endocrine Surgery Association. These informed consent forms were evaluated with regard to the aforementionedcriteria. The results and also the distribution according to the associations were summarized. A common feature ofthe informed consent forms was that all of them included the risks of the intervention/operation and complicationsto be carried out. On the contrary, none of them included approximate time of surgery, information about surgeons,issues that patients should care about before surgery, the section that permits the use of data for scientific purpose,and the time of signing the informed consent form.Conclusion: We believe that in this context the regulation of informed consent by sub-specialization associationsunder the flag of Turkish Surgical Association is a very important matter and will standardize informed consents;websites of the associations will be easier to access, and this will be as beneficial for physicians as the patients andalso will protect the physicians in probable trials.