[A specialized university outpatient clinic of the department of Plastic and Aesthetic Surgery]. / Spezialisierte Hochschulambulanz mit Querschnittscharakter: Die Poliklinik für Plastische und Ästhetische Chirurgie.

ABSTRACT

University outpatient clinics are essential for medical research, teaching and treatment of complex and special diseases based on current knowledge and guidelines. Furthermore new therapeutic approaches are developed for complicated and rare diseases. The diversity of disease entities and treatment decisions provided by a specialized university outpatient clinic for plastic and aesthetic surgery is so far unknown and subject to our research. The study results highlight the value of the specialized university outpatient clinic for plastic and aesthetic surgery for medical training purposes, research and advanced health care. METHOD: In a retrospective study, outpatients consulting the clinic of the Department of Plastic and Aesthetic Surgery of Hannover Medical School university hospital between 2013 and 2014 were analyzed. The epidemiology and distribution of disease entities previously treated in the different medical specialties such as surgery, internal medicine, dermatology, neurology and psychiatry, dentistry and ophthalmology were investigated. RESULTS: During a two-year period (2013/2014) 9272 patients with 821 different ICD-coded diagnoses were seen. 57 % of the primary and secondary diagnoses were related to surgery and 36 % to internal medicine. 7 % of the diagnoses were derived from other clinical specialties such as dermatology, neurology, psychiatry, dentistry and ophthalmology. Geriatric surgery comprised 22 %, post oncological 7 %, postoperative complication management 6 %, sequelae of conservative (non-surgical) treatment 3 % and congenital malformations 3 %. In 29 % of patients, surgical treatment was recommended. CONCLUSION: The analysis shows that patients with complex and a wide range of disease entities presented at our outpatient clinic of plastic- and aesthetic surgery. The variety of diagnoses requires not only extensive specialized expertise, but also broad medical knowledge in order to reach adequate treatment strategies. The setting of complex as well as a broad spectrum of diseases of the university outpatient clinic is thus particularly suitable for teaching of differential diagnoses, diagnostic algorithms and development of treatment strategies during medical training and student education.