%0 Journal Article
%A Segura-Sampedro, Juan José
%A Rivero-Belenchón, Inés
%A Pino-Díaz, Verónica
%A Rodríguez Sánchez, María Cristina
%A Pareja-Ciuró, Felipe
%A Padillo-Ruiz, Javier
%A Jimenez-Rodriguez, Rosa María
%T Feasibility and safety of surgical wound remote follow-up by smart phone in appendectomy: A pilot study.
%D 2017
%@ 2049-0801
%U https://hdl.handle.net/10668/25228
%X The objective of the present study is to assess the safety and feasibility of the use of telemedicine-based services for surgical wound care and to measure patient satisfaction with telemedicine-based follow-up. 24 patients were included, they were provided with a corporate mail address. On day 7 after surgery patients sent, via email, an image of their surgical wound together with a completed questionnaire in order to obtain an early diagnosis. Two independent physicians studied this information and the histologic analysis of the specimen. On day 8, all patients underwent face-to-face office examination by a third physician and all of them completed a satisfaction questionnaire at the end of the study. The use of telemedicine-based services showed a sensitivity of 100%, a specificity of 91.6%, a positive predictive value of 75% and a negative predictive value of 100%. Degree of concordance between the two physicians, as regards the necessity of face-to-face follow-up yielded a kappa coefficient of 0.42 (standard error 0.25 and confidence interval 95% (0.92-0.08), which means a moderate agreement between the two evaluations. 94% of patients were satisfied with telemedicine-based follow-up and 93% showed their preference for this procedure over conventional methods. The telemedicine-based follow-up, has proven to be feasible and safe for the evaluation of early postoperative complications. Patients reported high levels of satisfaction with the procedure. Telemedicine-based follow-up could become standard practice with the development of a specific mobile application.
%K Appendectomy
%K E-mail
%K Follow-up
%K Mobile phone
%K Surgical wound
%K Telemedicine
%~