Information obligation in surgery

The following article aims to clarify the guidelines needed for the gaining of informed consent in surgery treatments. Legal dispositions in the provisions of law n. 219/2017, written according to the regulatory mechanism uphold by the Italian Supreme Court and medical code of practice have been properly analyzed in order answer the questions unanswered by the law. Who is supposed to inform the patient? About which risks? Does the patient’s characteristics affect information obligation? Is necessary to add more information than those required by the law? How do emergency and urgency affect information obligation? Can the patient give consent in advance to an additional operation during the undergoing surgery, if needed? The answers provided by the law and by the Italian Supreme Court picture a state of obligation, where the single physician risks to encounter several responsibilities. It’s important to face this problem inside sanitary facilities, creating a suitable informed consent form and planning surgeries to allow the usage of personal data according to the patient’s needs.