Telemedicine consultations in oral and maxillofacial surgery

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficiency of teleme dicine consultation for preoperative assessment of patients. Patients and Methods: A retrospective study of 43 patients was done to eval uate the efficiency of telemedicine consultation in adequately assessing pa tients for dentoalveolar surgery with general anesthesia and nasotracheal i ntubation. Efficiency was defined as the ability to conduct surgery with ge neral anesthesia at the immediately following clinic appointment without th e need for further preoperative testing, evaluation, or consultation. Thirt y-five of these patients were subsequently treated. Results: Ninety-five percent (33) of patients were able to undergo surgery with general anesthesia at the immediate appointment, and 100% of patients were assessed correctly, using telemedicine consultation. Two Of the patien ts were assessed as American Society of Anesthesiologists Class III during telemedicine consultation and required further evaluation before surgery co uld be scheduled. No surgical procedure was canceled, and there were no ane sthetic complications attributable to inadequate preoperative assessment of patients during telemedicine consultation. Conclusions: This study confirms that telemedicine consultations are as rel iable as those conducted by traditional methods. Because of the reorganizat ion of health care and the ways it is financed, it may be more economical t o move data from place to place than to move doctors from place to place. T elecommunication is an efficient and cost-effective mechanism to provide pr eoperative evaluation in situations in which patient transport is difficult or costly.