New Liver Transplation Research Has Been Reported by Investigators at Department of Surgery.

"Surrogate consent is an accepted form of promoting patient autonomy when patients cannot consent, but it can lead to surrogate duress and may be unreliable. Since consent for liver transplantation in patients with fulminant hepatic failure (FHF) is typically performed by surrogates and these patients typically regain decisional capacity, we chose this population to query patients' opinion on the surrogate consent process," investigators in Elgin, Illinois report (see also Liver Transplantation).

"We developed a questionnaire that queried transplanted patients' experience and opinion on surrogate consent, suitability of surrogates, and return of decisional capacity. This …