Following arthroscopic knee surgery, patients are as satisfied with telemedicine follow-ups as they are with in-person follow-up, according to a new study published in The Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery.
“Patient satisfaction with overall care is equivalent between telemedicine and office-based follow-up after an arthroscopic meniscal surgical procedure in the immediate postoperative period,” wrote Christina P Herrero, MD, and colleagues of NYU Langone Health.
The study recruited 122 patients who underwent arthroscopic surgery on the meniscus in the knee, which is one of the most common orthopaedic surgical procedures. Of these patients, 88% had a removal of the meniscus (meniscectomy), with the rest undergoing meniscal repair procedures.
Patients were randomly assigned to either office-based or telemedicine follow-up, scheduled for 5 to 14 days postoperatively. During both types of follow-up visits, the surgeon spoke to the patient about the surgical findings, pain the patient might be experiencing, and the postoperative recovery period, as well as performing a physical examination that included range-of-motion testing.
The telemedicine follow-ups were performed using the patient’s home computer or mobile device via a telemedicine program that was compliant with privacy rules. Surgeons of course were unable to physically feel or touch the knee during telemedicine follow-ups. However they could still conduct a visual assessment of wound healing, drainage, and swelling.
Overall satisfaction ratings were nearly identical between groups. The surveys showed average patient satisfaction scores (on a 0-to-10 scale) were 9.77 in office-based follow-up and 9.79 for telemedicine follow-up. In both groups, only about 20% of patients said they would have preferred the other type of visit. There was also similar improvement observed in pain scores between groups: from about 5 (out of a maximum of 10) on the day of the surgery to 3 at the follow-up visit.
Telemedicine has become all the more crucial in the COVID pandemic to minimise contact, but the levels of satisfaction shown indicate that it may be a promising standard mode of care in the future, especially for cases where access to physical follow-up consultation may be difficult for the patients.
“Telemedicine may be a reasonable alternative to office-based follow-up after knee arthroscopy,” Dr Herrero and coauthors concluded. “[Our] study only evaluated the first postoperative visit, but future studies may benefit from expanding the use of telemedicine to longer-term follow-ups or to additional surgical procedures.”
Source: News-Medical.Net
Journal information: Herrero, C. P., et al. (2021) Patient Satisfaction Is Equivalent Using Telemedicine Versus Office-Based Follow-up After Arthroscopic Meniscal Surgery. The Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery. doi.org/10.2106/JBJS.20.01413.
