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Remembering Risk: Using Visual Risk Display of MINS to Obtain Informed Consent to Undergo Elective Surgery

Remembering Risk: Using Visual Risk Display of MINS to Obtain Informed Consent to Undergo Elective Surgery

Status
UNKNOWN
Phases
NA
Study type
Interventional
Source
ClinicalTrials.gov
Registry ID
NCT04247841
Enrollment
456
Registered
2020-01-30
Start date
2020-01-29
Completion date
2021-09-01
Last updated
2021-03-19

For informational purposes only — not medical advice. Sourced from public registries and may not reflect the latest updates. Terms

Conditions

Risk

Keywords

Risk, Preoperative Assessment, Myocardial Injury, Perioperative Medicine, Personalized Medicine, Communication

Brief summary

Disclosure of anticipated risks to individuals considering undergoing an operative procedure is an important aspect of informed consent process. Recent Canadian Guidelines have highlighted the importance of perioperative risk discussion within the context of preoperative assessment but there is little prior research into potential interventions to optimize the communication of risks. Myocaridal injury (MINS) is the most common complication and this study is focused on determining the effectiveness of current communication strategies in our presurgical consultations and to quantifying the impact of introducing a visual aid and scripted risk discussions has on patients ability to recall their individualized perioperative risk of myocardial injury.

Detailed description

Informed consent is an important aspect of the patient-physician relationship. Prior to agreeing to undergo treatment patients must have risks and benefits disclosed to a reasonable patient standard.1 The 2016 Canadian Cardiovascular Society Guidelines on Perioperative Cardiac Risk Assessment strongly recommend the communication of perioperative cardiac risk to patients.2 Myocardial injury is the most common post-operative complications and has significant impact on patient outcomes including survival.2. However, very few studies have examined the communication of risk to patients, particularly when communicating perioperative cardiac risk. The aim of this study is a 2-stage research project to address current practice in perioperative risk communication and examine opportunity to improve communication and patient education. Phase One is structured to assess the current practices with respect to cardiac risk discussion at our academic center. During this initial phase, a survey will be offered after the PSS consultation to patients \> 45 years old, seen in consult prior to elective orthopedic surgery requiring an overnight admission to KHSC. The survey will assess current risk discussion practices, patient satisfaction with cardiac risk discussion, ability to recall cardiac risk, importance of cardiac risk disclosure, and seek general feedback from participants. Phase Two of this study is structured to assess the effectiveness of incorporating the use of structured, scripted risk discussion with and without the use of a visual aid. The patients will complete the survey instrument immediately after their PSS consultation to assess patient satisfaction with cardiac risk discussion, recall of risk, importance of cardiac risk discussion from the patients' perspective, and general feedback will be sought regarding perioperative education. A subset of consenting patients during both Phase I and II will be followed-up post operatively (within 48h) to assess recall of preoperative cardiac risk discussion. Our study group hypothesizes that the use of visual representation of perioperative risk of Myocardial Injury after Non-Cardiac Surgery during the pre-anesthetic assessment will improve the patients' satisfaction with the cardiac risk discussion and their understanding and retention of the risk in the post-operative period.

Interventions

The visual aid will include a graphic display of 100 individuals with number of individuals anticipated to suffer a myocardial injury highlighted by being filled in in red. There will also be a textual discription stating the anticipated risk. For example in a patient with an rCRI score = 2 the text will state 10 out of 100 patients will have a myocardial injury (MINS) and 90 out of 100 patients will have no myocardial injury and 10 of the patients will be shaded red on the visual aid. The patients in this intervention will also received the scripted discussion of perioperative risk of MINS.

The patients seen in PSS will have a standardized discussion of perioperative risk of myocardial injury read to them by the anesthesiologist in the PSS clinic.

Sponsors

Dr. Michael McMullen
Lead SponsorOTHER

Study design

Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
OTHER
Masking
DOUBLE (Subject, Outcomes Assessor)

Masking description

Participants will be masked to the primary purpose of the study during their preoperative consultation. Upon receiving and completing the survey responses they will be asked to recall their individualized risk of myocardial injury and provide feedback on the risk discussion they had with the anesthesiologist.

Intervention model description

During Phase 1 we will be completing data collection on a prospective cohort of patients attending Presurgical Screening (PSS) Clinic in preparation for elective total joint arthroplasty of the hip or knee. During the Phase 2 we will utilize a randomized approach to generate 2 groups of patients who will have their preoperative risk discussion guided by the use of a structured script or have the risk discussion guided by the use of a structured script and the display of a visual aid outlining the risk of myocardial injury

Eligibility

Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
45 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
No

Inclusion criteria

* Patients 45 years of age or older who are seen in Presurgical Screening Clinic by an anesthesiologist prior to elective hip or knee arthroplasty at Kingston Health Sciences Centre.

Exclusion criteria

* Unable to provide consent due to communication/language barrier * Prior enrollment in this study * No planned admission to hospital ( Same - Day joint arthroplasty)

Design outcomes

Primary

MeasureTime frameDescription
Immediate Recall of Perioperative Risk of Myocardial Injury (MINS)Within 60 minutes of completing consultation with anesthesiologist in PSS clinicThis will be calculated as the patients who can state their risk estimate within the 95% CI for the risk estimate given their rCRI score (as outlined in the 2016 CCS Guidelines) when completing the survey.

Secondary

MeasureTime frameDescription
Postoperative Recall of Perioperative Risk of Myocardial Injury (MINS)Within 48 hours of undergoing their elective joint arthroplastyThis will be calculated as the patients who can state their risk estimate within the 95% CI for the risk estimate given their rCRI score (as outlined in the 2016 CCS Guidelines) when completing the survey.
Demographics and Immediate Recall of Perioperative Risk of Myocardial InjuryWithin 60 min of completing preoperative consultationWe will compare the impact sex, age and level of education have on the percentage of patients able to recall their risk estimate within the 95% CI outlined in CCS guidelines
Correlation between subjective rating of individual risk and numeric risk estimateWithin 60 min completing preoperative consultationPatients subjective responses to their level of risk (minimal, low, moderate, high, very high) will be compared with their numeric risk estimate ( rate / 100 persons)
Satisfaction with Risk DiscussionWithin 60 min completing preoperative consultationSubjects will be asked to rate their level of satisfaction with the preoperative risk discussion on a 5 point Likehert Scale and the difference between 3 arms will be examined
Recommendation of Use of Risk Discussion Tool in FutureWithin 60 min completing preoperative consultationPatients will be asked to rate their likelihood (0-10) to use a similar format of risk discussion to family or friends coming for surgery.

Countries

Canada

Outcome results

None listed

Source: ClinicalTrials.gov · Data processed: Feb 4, 2026