Enhanced Consent and Preparedness for Surgery Trial

To address the limitations of consent, interventions have been developed to improve the quality of information provided to patients including written pamphlets, videos, and websites. Such interventions have been called decision aids. Decision aids may promote informed consent through greater knowledge and consistency of personal values or attitudes with an enacted choice. Providing adequate information increases satisfaction, more rapid symptom resolution, reduced emotional distress, reduced use of analgesia, and possibly shorter hospital admissions. Cochrane reviews have established that audiovisual decision aids enhance informed surgical consent, yet little data exists about the benefits of such aids in Female Pelvic Medicine and Reconstructive Surgery (FPMRS)4.