Telemedicine preoperative consultations prove effective for hernia repair

The study highlights that telemedicine-based preoperative consultations for inguinal hernia repairs yielded comparable postoperative outcomes to traditional in-person visits. Among the 265 patients analyzed, those receiving telemedicine consultation faced no increased risk of complications and required fewer preoperative encounters (p < 0.001). Notably, 41% of in-person consult patients opted for virtual follow-ups compared to only 18% from the telemedicine group (p = 0.003). This underscores telemedicine's potential to reframe surgical preoperative assessments.