The role of general surgery consultations in direction of patient management

Abstract

Objective: Consultation results of patients who were thought to need a surgical approach and evaluated in the General Surgery Department for diagnostic support and treatment offers after detection of clinical and/or laboratory tests were evaluated. Material and Methods: In a six months period, 221 patients were analyzed retrospectively. There were 121 male (54.75%) and 100 female (45.25%) patients and the mean value of their ages was 46 (15-102). The departments which requested consultation, reason of consultation, test results and physical examination before consultation; required additional tests after consultation and results of consultations were reported. Results: The majörity of consultations were from the emergency department (91.9%) and the most frequent reason was abdominal pain (21.9%). There were no tests performed before consultation in 21 percent of cases. Although physical examinations were almost 100% in judicial cases, the ratio was 35% in perianal diseases and 30% in ileus cases. Twenty-one percent of the patients with surgical pathology were operated under general anaesthesia, 9% with local anaesthesia, while elective operation was suggested in 3%. Conclusion: Currently, it is mandatory that patient management is carried out with a multidisciplinary approach; however, we believe that we should be more selective regarding the consultation results. © Copyright 2013 by Turkish Surgical Association.