[Risk estimation in aesthetic surgery: a national study in French].

[AIM] The aim of this study was to establish the status of the means of information and to search for the variability in risk estimation.

[MATERIALS AND METHODS] A questionnaire has been mailed to a hundred plastic surgeons randomly sorted among the habilitation list to be returned in an anonymous enclosed envelope. This random sample comprised 50 liberal practioners and 50 plastic surgeons working at hospital. The first part of this questionnaire dealed with basic data such as the type of activity (reconstructive or aesthetic), years of experience and means of information. The second part dealed in seven items with the most important preoperative information to be given to the patient and the most feared complications according to each surgeon before a reduction mammaplasty and abdominoplasty.

[RESULTS] A total of 50 (50%) of the 100 questionnaires were returned. Years of experience influenced significantly the importance given to information and the way of transmitting it. Important variability existed between the surgeons' answers. Moreover, current complications were in many cases never mentioned. Risk estimation depended on the experience of the surgeon and the information procedures were influenced by the surgeon's type of activity.

[CONCLUSION] Important variability in risk estimation exists among the plastic surgeons leading to an important variability in the kind and way of delivering information.