Telemedicine to follow patients in a general surgery department. A randomized controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: Telemedicine is becoming more popular in many medical specialties but few studies have been conducted in General Surgery. This study aims to evaluate the feasibility of its introduction in this specialty. METHODS: A prospective randomized clinical trial (RCT) was conducted in 200 patients to compare conventional vs telemedicine follow-up in the outpatient clinics. The primary outcome was the feasibility of telemedicine follow-up and the secondary outcomes were its clinical impact and patient satisfaction. RESULTS: Patients were enrolled between March 2017 and April 2018 and there were no statistically significant differences between the groups' characteristics. The primary outcome was achieved in 90% of the conventional follow-up group and in 74% of the telemedicine group (P = 0.003). No differences were found in clinical outcomes (P = 0.832) or patient satisfaction (P = 0.099). CONCLUSION: Telemedicine is a good complementary service to facilitate follow-up management in selected patients from a General Surgery department.