Saswati Tripathy

Abstract

Aim: Informed consent is an ethical and legal requirement and is practiced before all the surgical procedures. Cesarean section is the commonest obstetrics surgery and there is increased rate of C-section due to better diagnosis and early referral. A legitimate consent should be taken from the patient or her guardian before caesarean section. So this study was aimed to assess the adequacy of informed consent process and the understanding of information obtained by the patient. Materials and Methods: A cross sectional study was done with patients aged more than 18 years and who underwent elective or emergency caesarean section. Based on inclusion and exclusion criteria, a total of ninety three patients were included. A pretested and pre validated questionnaire was adopted for the study. The data were analyzed and expressed as percentage of proportion. Result: The average age of the participants was 26.11 3.97 years. About 70.96% of the participants underwent emergency caesarean section and 29.07% underwent elective section. About 91.3% of participants knew the necessity of the cesarean section, 94.62% were informed about the risk of surgery and 95.6% were informed about the benefits of C-section. About 98.92% of participants didn’t know about the type of anesthesia to be used and almost all patients were not informed about their right to refuse the procedure. Conclusion: The patients were well informed about the procedure, the risks and benefits involved in C-section. Still some elements of consent process needs to be improved which can be done by proper awareness and training of the health care professionals. Keywords: Informed consent, Caesarean section, Questionnaire.

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Abstract

Purpose of Study: India already has highest number of patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus globally and rapid rise of the incidence of obesity in children is the prime reason for increasing insulin resistance, the metabolic syndrome, dyslipidemia and polycystic ovarian syndrome. Prevalence of this syndrome in our community remains unknown. Objective: The study was done to determine the prevalence of PCOS among students in Tamil Nadu, India due to sparsity of PCOS prevalence data in the state. We attempted to find its prevalence in students, aged between 17-23 years in a tertiary care teaching hospital. Materials and Methods: A cross sectional study with sample size 246 was done. Students of aged 17-23 years were randomly selected from various batches of medical and paramedical courses. Presence of hyper androgenic features and menstrual irregularities were assessed and they were physically examined to validate the self-assessed mFG scoring. The diagnosis of PCOS was made on the basis of Rotterdam’s criteria. Results: Seventy nine students (32.11%) met the criteria to be diagnosed as polycystic ovarian syndrome. Thirteen students (5.2%) had a history of thyroid dysfunction. The other clinical features of hyperandrogenism among those who had PCOS were like oily skin (13.82%), acne (8.53%), increased hair growth (5.69%), male pattern thinning of hair (9.75%), high degree of intolerance to cold and heat (3.25%) and galactorrhoea (0%). Conclusion: PCOS can be thought of as a precursor syndrome that, if screened for, can help in early identification of risk of highly morbid conditions, in adolescent girls and women in their early twenties. Keywords: PCOS, Adolescent, Risk factors.

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