Study Design: A prospective cohort study of patients undergoing surgery for prolapsed intervertebral disc.

Objective: To assess a patient’s ability to recall information discussed pre-operatively at the time of informed consent six weeks following surgery.

Subjects: Sixty-one consecutive patients undergoing discectomy for prolapsed intervertebral disc with follow up six weeks after surgery.

Outcome measures: Patients were assessed, using a pre-prepared questionnaire, to establish their understanding of disc surgery prior to signing a consent form. All information on the questionnaire had previously been given to the patient at the time of being put on the waiting list via a copy of the clinic letter to the general practitioner. If patients were unable to complete the questionnaire, they were then tutored using visual aids such as posters and models until they were able to answer the questions correctly. The consent form was then signed. Six weeks following surgery, patients were then asked the same questionnaire to establish their ability to recall the information discussed pre-operatively about disc surgery.

Results: Prior to tutoring, 20 % of patients were unable to recall that their symptoms were due to disc pathology and that surgery to remove the disc would relieve their symptoms. They were also unable to recall the success rate of surgery. Following surgery, only half of this group of patients could recall these facts. Only 32% of patients were able to recall two or more risk factors of surgery prior to tutoring. This improved to 45% following surgery. Pre- and post-operative questionnaire scores were analysed using a paired t-test. There was no statistical improvement in questionnaire scores long term following tutoring.

Conclusion: In this group of patients, extensive tutoring with the use of visual aids as an adjunct, does not statistically improve their ability to recall important information about surgery for prolapsed intervertebral disc and the risks associated with it.