[The premedication visit--suggestions for a patient-friendly design].

The premedication visit is often a difficult situation for the anaesthetist. On the one hand the patient needs to be informed in detail, but on the other he must not be alienated unnecessarily. Furthermore, a hospital stay represents an exceptional situation for the patient in which he behaves differently than in everyday life and shows a limited ability to process information. Following certain communication strategies allows to convey information to the patient in a comprehensible manner and to describe his individual anaesthesiological risk without needlessly creating fear. © Georg Thieme Verlag Stuttgart · New York.