Multispecialty surgical conditions in general practice

Area of Science:

• General Surgery
• Surgical Practice Management

Background:

• Multispecialty surgical conditions are often treated in separate episodes.
• This can lead to increased costs and patient inconvenience.

Purpose of the Study:

• To determine the incidence of patients with multiple surgical conditions presenting to a procedural general practice.
• To evaluate the feasibility and benefits of treating multiple conditions in a single surgical episode.

Main Methods:

• A retrospective survey of surgical records from a general practitioner-surgeon over 18 years (1983-2002).
• Analysis of 211 patients with multiple, elective, non-major surgical problems treated in one operation.

Main Results:

• Patients with multiple surgical conditions constituted 9.03% of the practice's elective surgical workload.
• 73.5% of patients had two procedures, 25.1% had three, and 1.4% had four, all in a single surgical episode.
• Single-episode treatment offered significant savings in time, convenience, and expense.

Conclusions:

• There is a role for general surgeons in urban settings to manage patients with multiple minor surgical conditions.
• Consolidating treatment for multispecialty surgical conditions in one episode is efficient and beneficial.