EP 6: Consent Vs. Informed Consent - How Should Doctors Expose Patients to Risk?

If surgeons told their patients everything that could go wrong during a procedure, only the most courageous would consent to an operation. That said, doctors must set appropriate expectations. These conversations are memorialized in consent forms. Patients must have an adequate understanding of the risks.

But even after a doctor obtains a patient's consent to perform a procedure, some patients allege they did not comprehend the nature of the operation. These outbursts typically accompany bad outcomes. What is the difference between consent and informed consent? And what is the optimal way for doctors to communicate the level of risk to their patients?