Communication with patients before anesthesia and obtention of preanesthetic consent.

Communication in medicine deserves greater attention than it usually receives. The physician's obligation to obtain informed consent for clinical care and research forces the issue out into the open. Recognition that communication can have legal and economic impacts suggests communication skills should be cultivated as a medical art. This review places communication issues in anesthesia practice, especially those related to informed consent, in an historical, and when possible, scientific context.