Objective 4: Shared decision making
Each patient has a unique perspective on their surgery. Whereas some patients may wish to avoid a stoma at all costs, even if this places them at high risk of leak, others may prefer a stoma if they are at very high risk of anastomotic leak pre-operatively, or intra-operatively in the event of a complication.
It is important that we understand our patients’ expectations for their procedure and by using a validated risk predictor we can discuss their choices in a more informed way.