Abstract
Objective: 1) Compare surgical risk retention in participants who received a handout or watched a video in addition to standard verbal preoperative counseling. 2) Determine if time from counseling to day of surgery affects risk retention.
Method: We performed a prospective randomized control study in March 2010 through February 2011 in participants who had children undergoing adenotonsillectomy. Those unable to perform pre- and postoperative testing were excluded. We compared the preoperative and postoperative test scores of those undergoing verbal counseling, counseling with handout, or counseling with video.
Results: A total of 27 participants were tasked to identify 9 risks of adenotonsillectomy. Preoperatively, participants identified an average of 6.5 (SD 1.08) in the counseling group, 7.1 (SD 1.9) in the counseling and handout group, and 6.77 (SD 1.5) in the counseling and video group; P = .54. Postoperatively, participants identified an average of 5.3 (SD 1.4) in the counseling group, 6.5 (SD 2) in the counseling and handout group, and 5.3 (SD 2.1) in the counseling and video group; P = .29. Time between preoperative counseling and day of surgery were inversely correlated with postoperative score, correlation coefficient -0.36; P = .07.
Conclusion: Participants were not able to identify all of the risks associated with adenotonsillectomy. There was no difference in identification of risks associated with adenotonsillectomy among different modalities of counseling. Participants retained more information when there were fewer days between preoperative counseling and day of surgery.
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