The Medical journal of Australia
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The requirements of consent to medical treatment, including the legal capacity of minors, psychotic patients, and prisoners to give binding consent to medical intervention, have increasingly presented a confused and anxious problem. A series of legal decisions of a binding or persuasive nature are analysed and five "rules", outlining the extent of the duty to advise and the degree of disclosure demanded by law, are advanced.
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During a five-year period, three patients with general peritonitis, secondary to perforation of the small bowel in Crohn's disease, were successfully treated by resection and primary anastomosis. During this period, 30 patients presented with small bowel or ileocaecal Crohn's disease. The possibility of perforation should be considered when evaluating the need for surgery in patients with Crohn's disease with symptoms of obstruction.