Perioperative Telemedicine Care in Hernia Surgery: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Telemedicine has been increasingly incorporated into medical practice in the last few years. However, it is still not a routine practice in our field. There is limited data on the impact of telemedicine on outcomes in hernia surgery. This systematic review and meta-analysis aims to evaluate the outcomes between telemedical perioperative care and in-person traditional care in hernia surgery. PubMed, EMBASE, and Cochrane were searched for studies comparing Telemedical interventions and traditional In-Person perioperative care for hernia surgery. Postoperative outcomes were assessed by pooled analysis and meta-analysis. Statistical analysis was performed using Review Manager 5.4 (Nordic Cochrane Center, The Cochrane Collaboration, Copenhagen, Denmark). One thousand and thirty-four articles were screened, and 39 were thoroughly reviewed. We included three observational retrospective studies, with 2,582 patients receiving telemedicine or in-person care for hernia surgery repair. A total of 2,049 (79%) patients received telemedicine care, and 533 (21%) received traditional care. There was no significant differences in overall complications (14% vs. 13%; odds ratio (OR) 1.11; 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.83-1.48; P = 0.49; I² = 62%), surgical site occurrences (8% vs. 10%; OR 0.91; 95% CI 0.54-1.56; P = 0.14; I² = 0.48%), and readmission rates (3% vs. 2.6%; OR 1.41; 95% CI 0.19-10.39; P = 0.73; I² = 53%) between both groups. In conclusion, perioperative telemedicine in hernia surgery may be safe compared to traditional in-person care, without significant differences in complications, readmissions, or surgical site occurrences. Our findings support telemedical perioperative care as a feasible alternative that enhances patient access while maintaining optimal surgical outcomes. Further high-quality prospective studies are warranted to better establish the role of telemedicine in hernia surgery.