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TÜRKÇE
Poster - 49
IMPROVING MEDICAL CARE FOR CHILDREN WITH ESOPHAGEAL ATRESIA THROUGH TELEMENTORING – FINAL RESULTS OF THE TIC-PEA STUDY
MC Stefanescu*, TT König**, LM Frankenbach*, E Gianicolo***, OJ Muensterer****
*Department of Pediatric Surgery, University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Mainz, Germany
**Department of Pediatric Surgery, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany
***Institute of Medical Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Informatics (IMBEI), University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Mainz, Germany Institute of Clinical Physiology, National Research Council, Lecce, Italy
****Department of Pediatric Surgery, Dr. von Hauner Children´s Hospital, University Hospital, LMU, Munich, Germany
Aim of the Study: Treatment of esophageal atresia (EA) is decentralized and not standardized in certain countries including Germany. The TIC‐PEA study provides a resource for professionals to discuss findings, treatment plan and follow‐up during their patients’ first year of life via video conference. The aim of this study was to determine the impact of telementoring on patient outcome, using the number of esophageal dilatations as surrogate variable.
Methods: In this controlled, not‐randomized multicenter interventional study, patients were compared to controls from the national patient support group registry. Patients born 09/20 through 01/24 were included. Patient characteristics and the mean number of esophageal dilatations during the first year of life were analyzed.
Main results: Overall, 97 patients and 121 controls were included. The mean number of video conferences was 3.6 per patient (mean duration 10.6 minutes). Compared to controls, despite a similar mean gestational age, TIC-PEA patients trended to have a lower birth weight compared to controls. Furthermore, the TIC-PEA group had a larger portion of patients with Gross Type A, or congenital heart disease and every other patient had VACTERL association (Table 1). The dilatation rate was similar in both groups (Table).
Conclusions: Telementoring was frequented especially in complicated cases. Still, the outcome in terms of need for esophageal dilatations was comparable. Telementoring might have the potential to improve patient outcome at a low operating expense and should be reimbursed by health insurance.