To assess the documentation of postoperative adhesions as a potential complication of laparotomy on consent forms.
Method
Retrospective study of hospital notes of 102 adult patients that underwent laparotomy over a two year period.
Results
Intraperitoneal adhesions were documented as a postoperative risk on 10 consent forms (9.8%) only.
Conclusion
The results imply that most patients were not informed of this common postoperative complication and this may have medicolegal and risk management implications.
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