TOPLINE

Anesthesia teleconsultations for children were feasible in 73% of cases, with most clinicians and parents satisfied. Most failures were due to technical issues.

METHODOLOGY

• Researchers conducted a prospective observational study to evaluate the feasibility of teleconsultation for pre-anesthesia evaluation of children.
• They included 830 children (median age, 6.7 years) across 11 French hospitals between December 2020 and September 2022.
• Clinicians performed visits on a dedicated and secure audio‑video platform and completed three questionnaires, and parents completed one survey.
• The primary outcome was the feasibility of teleconsultation, defined as a successful visit involving both the child and parent on the dedicated platform without the need for any in-person follow-up.
• Secondary outcomes included reasons and outcomes of failure of teleconsultations, factors linked to failure, quality of anesthetic preparation, medical time spent at each step, and satisfaction of parents and anesthetists.

TAKEAWAY

• Overall, 73% of teleconsultations were completed successfully. Only three cases (0.4%) required a later in-person visit.
• Technical issues accounted for 91% of failures. Factors linked to technical failure included the use of tablets or smartphones rather than computers (odds ratio [OR], 2.44; P = .002) and skipping a test before connection (OR, 6.21; P < .001).
• No surgeries were called off on the scheduled day; only one procedure was postponed, and one anesthetic plan was changed.
• The median total medical time spent per patient was about 28 minutes, and 96% of anesthetists were satisfied with the medical part of the consultations; 93% of parents were willing to use teleconsultation again.

IN PRACTICE

"One lesson of this study is that ATLC [anesthesia teleconsultation] is not a 'plug-and-play' tool. Addressing technical and organizational issues appears essential to transform ATLC from a mere tool into a robust clinical process, ensuring its reliability and clinical utility in pediatric anesthesia," the researchers reported.

SOURCE

The study was led by Delphine Kern, MD, PhD, of University Hospital of Toulouse, Toulouse, France. It was published online on September 16 in Anesthesiology.

LIMITATIONS

The findings on major surgeries and cases of low satisfaction involved a small number of patients and had wide CIs. The study evaluated only medical time and did not record administrative or paramedical time. The design of the study was descriptive.

DISCLOSURES

The study received support from the French Pediatric Anesthesia Society and a national grant. The authors did not declare any competing interests.

This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication.