[Acceptance and effectiveness of surgical vascular consultation--is it worthwhile?]

In a retrospective analysis the meaning of the vascular outpatient clinic and the follow-up after vascular reconstructive surgery were investigated. 6889 patients were checked within 8 1/2 years in the vascular consultant hour of the Marien-Hospital Düsseldorf with a fixed diagnostic schedule related to the vascular surgery. More than 40% of the patients did not have any vascular disease. Only 6.5% of the 276 patients with aortoiliac reconstructive surgery visited the follow-up terms regularly. The additional vascular training group was visited by only 1.2%. While 93 patients (33.7%) were hospitalized to further treatment because of new clinical findings, 54 patients got another vascular reconstruction and 12 patients were operated because of secondary disease. In 12 cases (10.5%) we found a clinical asymptomatic deterioration of the vascular status. The vascular consultant hour is time-consuming and expensive. The important task is the differentiation of vascular clinical findings. Although the acceptance and the effectiveness are disappointing the vascular outpatient clinic and the long-term follow-up after reconstructive vascular surgery is necessary for the improvement of the quality of care of the department and for acquiring new knowledge.