Abstract

This Consumer publication gives prospective inpatients the information they may want about going into hospital for an operation. The book gives clear details of the arrangements for admission, the consultant’s investigations and diagnosis, ward routine and personnel, preparations for the operation, the consent form, anaesthesia, and postoperative recovery and treatment. The book also gives the answers to many unexpressed questions and uncertainties and will reassure anxious patients and their relatives. At the end, there is a brief account of some of the more common operations (abdominal, genito-urinary, gynaecological, orthopaedic, ENT, skin, chest and heart), so that a patient may understand more easily when told about his or her operation and what it will involve.