Sir, adequate postoperative care advice (PCA) empowers patients and prevents morbidity. Improved awareness amongst patients and development of new communication methods has vastly increased the need for accurate and helpful PCA. There is a binding need to involve and listen to the patients in the care they receive.

We investigated if the patients have a choice regarding who should be delivering the PCA after a surgical procedure. One hundred patients who underwent minor oral surgical procedures in our local oral and maxillofacial surgery department agreed to participate in a survey between September-November 2018.

Both the surgeon and the nurse were blinded in this survey to prevent bias. The survey forms were given by the receptionist to the participating patients post-operatively.

All participants underwent routinely performed procedures in the department including wisdom tooth removal, complex extractions and oral biopsies.

Males dominated the cohort (62%) with the majority of our patients above the age of 40 (72%). About two-thirds of the patients (66%) were given PCA by both the surgeon as well as the nurse with only 20 patients being advised by the nurse only.

Based on the survey, about 60% of patients preferred involvement of the surgeon in provision of PCA. Further data analysis did not reveal any statistical difference between genders and different age groups regarding preferences for PCA delivery (Table 1 and 2).

Table 1 Gender specific preference
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Table 2 Comparison of age groups & their preferences (One-way ANOVA and Bonferroni analysis)
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Traditionally, the nursing staff deliver the PCA in most oral surgical units using verbal information as well as written leaflets, a practice endorsed by the Cochrane review (2005).1

Our study shows a lack of rigidity amongst patients as to who should be the deliverer of the PCA. This was also noted in a large study of 636 participants by Bornstein et al. (2000).2

Due to small sample size, significant analogies cannot be derived and the authors are fully aware of the drawback of this humble study.

Nevertheless, the involvement of the operating surgeon in all modes of patient care is reiterated by this survey. We hope that this small study will be a precursor for further research into the subject of patient choice in all modalities of care.