Inpatient Dermatology Consultations in a General Surgery Ward in a Tertiary Hospital in China: A Retrospective Study of 251 Patients

Dermatologists play essential roles in providing dermatology consultations to inpatients admitted to hospital for care in another speciality ward. Data on dermatology consultations provided to inpatients admitted to general surgery wards are limited. The aim of this study was to analyze the reasons for and diagnoses of consultations provided by dermatologists to hospitalized patients in a general surgery ward and compare the provisional diagnoses by surgical residents and the final diagnoses by dermatologists.

Electronic health records were retrieved for patients admitted to a general surgery ward who received dermatology consultations while inpatients in Peking Union Medical College Hospital between 1 September 2015 and 31 August 2020. Sex, age, surgical diagnosis, reason for dermatology consultation, provisional diagnosis by surgical residents, and final diagnosis by dermatologists were reviewed.

A total of 262 dermatology consultations for 251 patients (n = 251, 123 women and 128 men) were identified, of whom 240 (95.6%) required only one consultation and 11 (4.4%) required two. Dermatology consultations were classified into three categories: preoperative consultation (n = 45, 17.9%), postoperative consultation (n = 65, 25.9%), and consultation unrelated to general surgery diseases or treatments (including surgery) (n = 141, 56.2%). For consultations falling in the category preoperative consultation, common reasons for the consultation were: to evaluate whether the current treatment plan for previously diagnosed skin diseases needed to be changed; to evaluate and manage skin problems that emerged after admission; to evaluate syphilis; and to evaluate whether previously diagnosed skin diseases would affect surgical incision or wound healing. Drug eruption, dermatitis/eczema, infectious skin disorders, and urticaria were the most common skin diseases in the hospitalized general surgery patients. Only 32 (12.7%) provisional diagnoses were made, of which 25 (78.1%) were correct and seven (21.9%) were incorrect. Surgical residents mainly had difficulty distinguishing herpes zoster, drug eruption, and infectious skin disorders from dermatitis/eczema.

Our results facilitate the understanding of inpatient dermatology consultations in general surgery wards and may help in the design of future educational materials and/or management guidelines.