All medical research requires approval of the institutional review board ( IRB ) and informed consent from the research participants in advance. But there are reports of low rates of IRB approval in major anesthesia journals. The purpose of the study is to investigate IRB approval and informed consent rates of Korean anesthetic field researches and provide suggestion.

We reviewed 11 years data from Korean journal of anesthesiology and obtained the number and percentage of IRB approved papers, informed consents and verbal consents.

The total number and percentage of IRB approved papers has increased to 60% and so as cases with informed consents over the past 11 years. But the ratio is still under 25%. The ratio of informed consent against verbal consent is also increasing.

The number of IRB approved and informed consented papers have increased. But the proportion is still not satisfying or low. Changes in understandings of the clinical researchers with education of research ethics and systemic establishment are needed.