Telemedicine in Nerve Surgery: An Effective Method to Determine Indications for Surgery

The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the adoption of telemedicine for surgical consultations. Although patient satisfaction has been well documented, limited research exists regarding telemedicine's effectiveness in determining the ability to indicate for surgical care compared with in-office visits. We conducted a retrospective review comparing surgical decision-making via telemedicine versus in-person consultations, hypothesizing that in-office visits would be more effective in establishing a surgical plan than telemedicine.

A retrospective review of the medical records of all new patients presenting to the senior author's nerve surgery clinic at a high-volume quaternary referral center between June 2020 and January 2023 was performed. Surgical consultations were categorized as (1) surgery recommended, (2) surgery not recommended, (3) further screening required, or (4) surgery declined. The Fisher exact test compared the distribution of these categories between consultation types and the proportion of patients who underwent surgery after an initial recommendation.

Of the 809 patients, 283 (35%) had in-person and 526 (65%) had telemedicine consultations. Surgery was recommended in 49.5% of in-person consultations compared with 38% of telemedicine consultations (P = 0.03). Among those recommended for surgery at the initial visit, 77.9% of in-person and 77.8% of telemedicine patients ultimately underwent surgery (P = 0.10). Of the telemedicine patients subsequently seen in the office and offered surgery, 84.5% ultimately underwent that surgery.

Our findings suggest that telemedicine and in-office visits are equally effective in establishing a surgical plan, suggesting that the expansion of telemedicine could be considered for a broader geographic patient base.