Digital Follow‐Up After Elective Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy: A Feasibility Study

Background Although recommendations exist for patients to be offered a post‐operative helpline or telephone follow‐up appointment at discharge after cholecystectomy, implementation of these is resource‐intensive. Whilst the benefits of telephone follow‐up are well documented, the use of digital modalities is less so. We aimed to identify if digital follow‐up (DFU) was equivalent to routine care with telephone follow‐up (TFU), for patients undergoing elective laparoscopic cholecystectomy. Methods All patients listed for elective laparoscopic cholecystectomy between August 2016 and March 2018 were offered routine post‐operative care (TFU or no follow‐up) or DFU at a tertiary referral centre in Nottingham. Results Of 597 patients undergoing laparoscopic cholecystectomy, 199 (33.3%) opted for TFU, and 98 (16.4%) for DFU. DFU was completed for 85 (86.7%) participants and TFU for 125 (62.8%), p  < 0.0001. Over 5 times as many patients who chose TFU missed their appointment compared to DFU (5.6% vs. 30.9%, p  < 0.001). At 30‐days post‐operatively, patients undergoing TFU had significantly more post‐operative wound infections identified then those undergoing DFU (17.6% vs 5.9%, p  = 0.01). However, this did not impact the incidence of 30‐day readmissions between groups (7.2% TFU vs. 7.1% DFU). No complications were missed by either the DFU or TFU modalities. DFU was completed significantly earlier than TFU (median 6 days vs. 13.5 days, p  = 0.001) with high patient acceptability, identifying complications and alerting clinicians to those patients requiring an early review. Conclusion This feasibility study has demonstrated that digital follow‐up is an acceptable alternative to telephone follow‐up after elective laparoscopic cholecystectomy.