Was the Surgeon a Satisfactory Informant? How to Minimize Room for Claims

Patient demand and expectations for plastic surgery have significantly increased over recent decades, leading to an increasing trend in claims. This—arguably, the result of a progressive lack of communication between surgeons and patients—becomes apparent in inadequate informed consent, as previously highlighted by Patel et al.1 Surgeons have the moral and legal obligation to adequately clarify for their patients everything concerning such operations and cannot perform any procedure without written patient consent. In fact, this aspect of the process allows patients to take active part in their own health care.2 Well-informed patients generally have good compliance and few anxieties and malpractice claims to raise. Despite this, the everyday clinical process may offer a different scenario: the legal formula of informed consent often becomes a mere act of hurriedly …