INFORMED CONSENT IN ORTHOPEDIC SURGERY

Abstract

The present review is intended as a wake-up call for those who work with orthopedics and trauma in Colombia and in other parts of the world. It is an opportunity to refl ect on daily practice with students and residents, patients and their families, colleagues and health administrators by establishing and making life an ethical culture from the standpoint of orthopedic surgery, so that we are reminded of fundamental ethical principles at all times, not just when complaints from patients or injunctions arise. Informed consent, its history, meaning and appropriate moment of application are the basis on which nuclear bioethical concepts are reviewed, beginning with good communication, which is the backbone of the physician-patient relationship and from which the confi dence necessary to perfect that relationship is derived. Comments are put forth, primarily with respect to confl icts of interest in light of the regulations adopted by the American Association of Orthopedic Surgeons to standardize the professional practice of its members.