Pediatrics · Surgery ·
Pediatric anesthesia teleconsultation feasible in 73% of cases across 11 French hospitals
A prospective observational study of 830 children assessed preoperative anesthesia teleconsultations at 11 French hospitals. Teleconsultation was feasible in 73% of cases; failures were predominantly technical, while parental satisfaction was high.
- Teleconsultation was feasible in 73% of 830 pediatric cases.
- Technical issues accounted for most reported failures.
- A preconnection test was associated with fewer technical failures.
- Ninety-three percent of parents would choose teleconsultation again.
Researchers prospectively evaluated pediatric preoperative anesthesia teleconsultations at 11 French university hospitals between December 2020 and September 2022. The study included 830 children, with a median age of 6.7 years. Feasibility required the child and a parent to be present, the consultation to take place entirely through a secure audiovisual platform, and no additional in-person appointment to be needed.
Teleconsultation met this definition in 73% of cases. Among reported failures, 91% were attributed to technical issues, 9% to organizational issues, and 1% to medical issues. Three consultations (0.4%) were converted to in-person visits. Use of a tablet or smartphone rather than a computer was associated with technical failure (odds ratio 2.44, 95% CI 1.40–4.26), as was absence of a preconnection test (odds ratio 6.21, 95% CI 3.05–12.66). On the day of surgery, no procedure was canceled; one was postponed and one anesthetic plan was modified. Overall, 93% of parents said they would choose teleconsultation again.
The findings suggest that technical reliability and preparation are important to delivering pediatric anesthesia teleconsultations consistently. This multicenter French study was observational, and its results may not generalize to systems with different preoperative assessment pathways. Satisfaction and low rates of day-of-surgery disruption do not establish equivalence to in-person assessment.
In practice
For teams conducting pediatric preoperative anesthesia assessments remotely, the study indicates that teleconsultation can be completed without an additional in-person visit in many cases, but was feasible in only 73% of consultations. Technical problems predominated; use of a computer and a preconnection test were associated with lower failure risk. These findings support attention to equipment and connection workflows when implementing this approach, but the observational study in 11 French hospitals does not establish equivalence to in-person assessment or generalizability to other care systems.
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Anesthesiology: Anesthesia Teleconsultation for Pediatric Preoperative Assessment: A Large National Prospective Multicentric Study in Children (TeleCCCAP) ↗This is an automated AI-condensed summary that has not yet been reviewed by an editor. Always consult the full item at the original source.