Consensus regarding transoral robotic surgery (TORS) complications for use in a proposed standardised consent form.

Abstract

Consenting patients for surgery is a vital process with ethical and legal implications. The use of a standardised consent form may provide a solution to issues related to poor communication surrounding the consenting process. To date, there is no standardised consent form available for use specifically for transoral robotic surgery (TORS) across robotic centres. In an attempt to improve the consenting process relating specifically to TORS, this study aims to develop a standardised consent form using a modified Delphi process. A modified Delphi process was employed to define consensus for complications to be used in a standardised consent form for TORS. An initial iteration was devised using a literature search with experts rating each item using a Likert scale. The process was repeated until consensus was reached for all items. Two rounds were completed with seven experts detailing key risks to be included on a standardised TORS consent form. This study is the first to propose a standardised consent form for use specifically in TORS. The authors agree with other literature that suggests that the use of standardised consent forms provide numerous advantages over handwritten forms. Future studies are needed to evaluate its implementation across multiple centres in order to assess the proposed benefits to both clinicians and patients.