What did you discuss with the patient prior to surgery regarding resuscitation efforts in the operating room?

What did you discuss with the patient prior to surgery regarding resuscitation efforts in the operating room?

It is critical to discuss with the patient what options are available. It is also imperative that the physician under-stands the patient’s perspective so that in an ambiguous clinical situation the physician can act with the patient’s interest in mind. Patients should be given the option of either “full” resuscitative efforts or “partial” resuscitative efforts. Full efforts are relatively simple to exercise. Partial efforts are more difficult because patients may choose to accept certain procedures which are medically inconsistent with other procedures they have chosen to refuse. For example, a patient may state that they would accept emer-gency surgery but refuse intubation. It may be necessary, however, to perform intubation in order for the emergent surgery to proceed.

The physician should have the patient sign a consent form that explicitly documents their wishes with regard to the DNR in the operating room. This informed consent is an important document and is explained in the next section.