Evaluation of patients referred to the spine clinic via telemedicine and the impact on diagnosis and surgical decision-making

Abstract

OBJECTIVE Telemedicine encounters are expanding in utility for outpatient care and evaluation, partially as a necessity during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is unclear if telemedicine evaluation is comparable to in-person assessment of patients with spinal pathology undergoing surgical consultation. The objective of this study was to determine if treatment plans change for spine patients evaluated in person following an initial telemedicine consultation. METHODS Patients referred to the authors’ comprehensive spine center were evaluated first via telemedicine and then in clinic. Telemedicine evaluations were conducted via video evaluation with an attending surgeon. Demographic data including age, gender, and distance traveled from the clinic were retrospectively recorded. A chart review retrieved symptoms, radiographic details, and past medical history. The primary outcome was if the treatment plan changed (plan change [PC]) after seeing the patient in the clinic. Chi-square tests and binary logistical regression produced uni- and multivariate analyses. RESULTS There were 152 new patients seen via telemedicine and in person. Pathology was present in the cervical (28.3%), thoracic (9.9%), and lumbar (61.8%) spine. The most common symptom was pain (72.4%), followed by radiculopathy (66.4%), weakness (26.3%), myelopathy (15.1%), and claudication (12.5%). There were 37 patients (24.3%) for whom there was a PC after clinic evaluation, and of those, only 5 (3.3%) were due to physical examination (PCPE) findings. On univariate analysis, a longer duration between telemedicine and clinic visit (odds ratio [OR] 1.094 per 7 days, p = 0.003), having pathology in the thoracic spine (OR 3.963, p = 0.018) and lack of sufficient imaging (OR 25.455, p < 0.0001) were predictive of a PC. Having pathology in the cervical spine (OR 9.538, p = 0.047) and adjacent-segment disease (OR 11.471, p = 0.010) were predictive of a PCPE. CONCLUSIONS This study demonstrates that telemedicine may be an effective modality for the initial evaluation of spine surgical patients, without compromising decision-making in the absence of an in-person physical examination.