Jm. Dunn et al., OUTPATIENT-CLINIC REVIEW AFTER ARTERIAL RECONSTRUCTION - IS IT NECESSARY, Annals of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, 76(5), 1994, pp. 304-306
After arterial reconstruction, patients have traditionally been follow
ed up in clinic in the long term. We have pursued a policy of limited
clinic follow-up, with an 'open access' service for suspected graft fa
ilure (and latterly duplex scanning surveillance for vein grafts). Thi
s policy was assessed by measurement of the success of self-referral,
graft patency and patient satisfaction after operation for lower limb
ischaemia in 173 patients. At median follow-up of 50 months, 61 (35%)
patients had died and 45 (25%) had required amputation. Of those with
salvaged limbs and available for follow-up, 55 (86%) patients reported
continuing symptomatic improvement with a graft patency rate of 80%.
During the review period, 27 (42%) patients had presented themselves o
n suspicion of graft occlusion and 14 (52%) of these had required surg
ical intervention. Of the patients, 45 (70%) found a single postoperat
ive clinic visit helpful, and the majority thought that further visits
would not have been helpful to them. Limited clinic appointments seem
especially desirable for elderly patients for whom journeys are an im
position, as well as reducing travel costs, and giving surgeons more t
ime to deal with new referrals. These results suggest that properly ed
ucated patients present themselves when signs of graft occlusion occur
, and there is little to be gained by regular long-term clinic follow-
up in vascular surgical practice.