López CY, Pérez MLB, Zurbano FJ

Language: Spanish
References: 0
Page: 67-73
PDF size: 299.88 Kb.

ABSTRACT

The origins of the informed consent date back to the Egyptian pharaonic dynasties. In the last decades, it has become in an essential element of the doctor–patient relationship, and therefore, a significant improvement in healthcare quality. The characteristics of this process, implying the request and signature of the informed consent form by a patient or a relative, are dependent and strongly conditioned by the economic-social formation and the inherent development of the health systems in each society. Informed consent has special peculiarities in cardiovascular surgery in Cuba due to patients' own characteristics attended in this specialty and because we cannot always offer them the best therapeutic or diagnostic option that their medical condition deserves. A reflection on the informed consent in cardiovascular surgery in Cuba was made in this article taking as analogy its practice at “Cardiocentro Ernesto Guevara” University Hospital.