The National Academy of Surgery is calling for more interventions in medical offices. Is this a good idea?

in collaboration with

Dr Gérald Kierzek (Medical Director)

And

Guillaume Pourcher (obesity surgeon)

Dermatologists and dental surgeons are two types of specialists who operate on their patients in their office. But this remains rare, for the moment. The Academy of Surgery advocates practicing surgery in medical offices. Is this a good idea?

Experts gathered to discuss the issue

On Wednesday October 23, the National Academy of Surgery brought together experts to debate the question. The idea would be to promote this practice in several specialties, such as for hand surgery (carpal tunnel, for example). “This is the basis of surgery, at its origins, even if obviously great advances have been made since then.” recalls Dr Guillaume Pourcher, digestive surgeon, member of the National Academy of Surgery and author of “Obesity, disease of the century – Neither a fault nor an inevitability!” published by Xo.

For Gérald Kierzek, emergency doctor and medical director of Doctissimo, this signals the failure of hospital management in France. “We closed small local structures for supposedly low security reasons and we now want to go back! “This is once again proof of the incompetence and carelessness of our health decision-makers for decades.”

A way to reduce the cost of care and improve patient rehabilitation

According to Dr Guillaume Pourcher, this idea could “suggest that this is an ‘archaic’ approach to surgery, but the idea is relevant, in reality“. Why? Quite simply because it optimizes costs and manages risks for the patient.”It’s a win-win system.” assures the surgeon.

“There is no greater risk for a patient to be operated on in a doctor’s office. On the contrary: an intervention that lasts only a few hours will be less stressful, without forgetting the fact that he will be able to return home immediately afterwards, since the operations in question will be carried out under local anesthesia“. And according to the specialist, the patient’s rehabilitation will be faster. “This has been proven for outpatient surgeries : for the same intervention, the patient recovers better when he returns home afterwards, compared to the hospitalized patient.

What specialties and surgeries will be affected?

For the moment, nothing has been done by the National Academy of Surgery. “This practice exists in orthopedics, ophthalmology, etc.“our expert advances again.”However, it will be up to practitioners to determine which interventions are feasible or not. For my part, for example, as a digestive surgeon, I know that few operations can be carried out this way.”

Finally, Guillaume Pourcher recalls the necessary investment. “Obviously, it will be necessary to supervise practices and participate in the implementation of this approach. But in any case, it represents an interesting solution, both for the patient, but also in terms of cost reduction and risk management, for surgeons.”