Commentary: Talking to patients about surgical innovations

Surgeons talk to patients before operating on them, but what is communicated during consultations is generally unknown and understudied. Consultations in which new procedures are discussed are also unchartered territory because surgical innovation often takes place outside the context of standard regulatory approval. Treasure and colleagues raise these issues with respect to aortic valve surgery in young people.1 Standard surgery offers a low immediate risk of death (1%) but necessitates life time anticoagulation and repeat surgery that carries a higher risk. An alternative procedure, the Ross pulmonary autograft, is associated with a 3% in-hospital mortality and better lifestyle outcomes, but it is technically more difficult than routine valve replacement and not within the armamentarium of all …