Telemedicine and Epilepsy. Experience of the Central Hospital "Dr. Ignacio Morones Prieto" During and Post-pandemic COVID-19

Abstract

Background: Telemedicine is a real-time interactive communication that enables providers to join with patients and consultants across challenging geographic distances in a cost-effective, accessible manner. Telemedicine is helpful in the treatment of epilepsy and other neurological disorders. This work aims to share the use of telemedicine in the management of patients with epilepsy belonging to suburban communities during the COVID-19 pandemic and its post-pandemic follow-up. Material and Methods: A retrospective, descriptive, and analytical study was conducted. The Telemedicine database in our hospital underwent a retrospective analysis. The inclusion criteria encompassed patients who had an initial consultation during the confinement period (2020-2021) and had at least one videoconference in the post-confinement period (2022-2023). Various parameters, including the number of consultations received, city of origin, treatment, etiology, type of epilepsy, comorbidities, and treatment outcomes, were gathered to facilitate a comparison between the two periods. Statistical analyses were performed using IBM SPSS Statistics V.25 for Mac. Results: Ninety-eight patients with an initial consultation between 2020 and 221 were identified, discarding 41 due to loss of follow-up during post-confinement, resulting in N=57 cases for analysis. Conclusions: During the COVID-19 confinement period in our hospital, Telemedicine emerged as the sole feasible option for providing care to patients in remote communities. It demonstrated remarkable success in monitoring the short and midterm progression of epileptic patients. The decrease in seizure frequency was sustained during the midterm.