Preoperative Education and Informed Consent in Young Adults Undergoing Bariatric Surgery: Patients' Perspectives on Current Practice

Background: Preoperative education is part of the informed consent process and should enable patients to make an informed decision. Aim of this study was to gain a more detailed insight in the perceptions and experiences of the informed consent process of young adults undergoing bariatric surgery.

Methods: Fifty-five young adults, aged 18-25 years, who underwent bariatric surgery, were invited to participate in a semistructured interview. The interview covered three main topics: education of specific informed consent domains, perioperative expectations and experiences, and personal (un)certainties related to undergoing bariatric surgery.

Results: Twenty-seven patients participated in a semistructured interview. Mean age was 23.1 +/- 1.6 years. All consent domains were remembered by the patients, but 24/27 patients could not recall one or more complications. Inadequate weight loss was not recalled by 6/27 patients. Common remarks were that the preoperative education focused mainly on the positive results. Negative effects were inadequately educated.

Conclusions: Physicians should educate patients more about the negative effects of a treatment and should focus more on specific age-related problems and social interactions. Improved preoperative education, including possible outcome scenarios to assess risks and lifetime consequences, should be developed to improve informed consent in these patients.