Doctors need to take their patients and their attendants into confidence before starting any treatment or surgery so that there is no conflict or medico-legal issue later.

Such matters were discussed in Patna on Sunday, the concluding day of Oncocon 2017, a conference of oncologists organised by the East Oncology Group.

Aman Kumar, an associate professor of forensic medicine at Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences, stressed on the need for doctors to take extra care of telling patients the pros and cons of a certain line of treatment. He cited the example of a case in which a person filed a case against an oncosurgeon when his wife died after three months of an exploratory laparotomy (surgical intervention to open the abdomen).

"Noting down every detail and conducting videography of some procedures can help, besides taking patients into confidence," he said.