In the paper by King et al (this issue, pp 550–4),¹ an analysis of the communication between neurosurgeons and their patients with unruptured aneurysms was conducted immediately after an outpatient appointment in a neurosurgery clinic. Many patients had an inaccurate understanding of their treatment plan, and an exaggerated sense of the risks of treatments and of the disease. Despite methodological limitations discussed by the authors, the results of this study are consistent with those found in other specialties.

Communication is of special importance whenever there …