Versorgungssituation der operativen Dermatologie in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland

Abstract

Background: Dermatologic surgery has become increasingly an important issue in dermatology in recent years. At the present, no current epidemiologic or care-related data on cutaneous surgery procedures in dermatology are available. Methods: To determine the extent of cutaneous surgery procedures in dermatological hospitals, a national survey was performed. Both the procedure codes for 2004 based on the OPS-classification and the DRG figures grouped to the major diagnostic category 09 of G-DRG version 2004 were considered in detail. Methods of descriptive statistics were applied. Results: The submitted data reveal that the contributing hospitals provided 164,487 cutaneous surgery procedures in the investigation period. The vast majority is represented by extensive procedures and plastic-reconstructive operations, as opposed to less complex surgeries such as simple excisions. Analysis of DRG assignment indicates that surgical procedures account for 44.2 % of inpatient cases. Conclusions: The present survey demonstrates that in Germany cutaneous surgery procedures are widely performed by dermatological hospitals and dermatologists. The increasing incidence of melanoma and non-melanoma skin cancer including precursor lesions will increase the need for dermatologists to perform cutaneous surgery in the future.