Background: Teleconsultation, especially via voice call without videoconferencing, became widely used during the COVID-19 pandemic. The French High Council of Public Health prioritized cancer treatment to ensure continuity during the pandemic. Recently, French authorities prohibited teleconsultation via voice call without videoconferencing and reverted to a video format. This retrospective study assessed the efficiency of preanesthesia teleconsultation via voice call without videoconferencing by comparing ambulatory surgery failure rates for breast cancer surgery based on the type of preanesthesia consultation during the COVID-19 crisis.
Methods: The study included 1,006 women who underwent ambulatory breast surgery before and after the implementation of teleconsultations via voice call without videoconferencing at a cancer center. Ambulatory failure was defined as requiring an unplanned overnight stay. Efficiency of preanesthesia consultation was defined as the absence of ambulatory surgery failure.
Results: No significant difference in ambulatory failure rates was observed between the groups receiving teleconsultations via voice call without videoconferencing and those with in-person consultations: in-person consultation before COVID group 3.8%, teleconsultation via voice call without videoconferencing group 4%, and in-person consultation during the COVID period group 2.4%. No patients refused the proposed teleconsultation, showing strong acceptance.
Conclusions: The results suggest that teleconsultations via voice call without videoconferencing are an effective and acceptable alternative to in-person consultations for ambulatory surgeries, without negatively impacting failure rates. However, further multicenter studies are needed to confirm these findings and assess the long-term integration of teleconsultation via voice call without videoconferencing in routine clinical practice.
Keywords: ambulatory; outpatient; teleconsultation; telemedicine; videoconferencing; voice call.