In response to the anonymous letter published in IJMS 1 Vol. 23.64 we make the following comments.
All hospital admissions require a written consent by the patients.
However, if the implication that the consent obtained was not an informed one is totally without foundation and not the sort of policy practiced in our center. As documented, the contributions of the authors in various aspects of tetanus over the past decade far exceeds any other group in the region and has probably been one of the most active research groups in the field. During the many years in which we have been interested in tetanus, we have reported 117 adult cases of which pulmonary angiography and cardiac catheterization was performed in only 14 individuals. The remaining 103 patients refusing the procedure once the risk factors were carefully outlined. In the 1970's cardiac catheterization was shown to be a safe and effective approach in assessing hypoxemia of unknown origin.