Dermatologists were not only found to be the largest contributor to most types of cutaneous reconstructions, but had increased in their contribution to these procedures when compared to other specialties.
Clinical Pearls
The authors used data from Medicare patients treated for cutaneous reconstruction in the year 2019 to understand what portion dermatologists and other specialties have in performing these procedures
Dermatologists were not only found to be the largest contributor to most types of cutaneous reconstructions, but had increased in their contribution to these procedures when compared to other specialties
Discussion:
This study aimed to better understand the contribution of dermatologists and other specialists to cutaneous reconstruction in the United States of America. The authors expressed their intent to provide new data on this topic, given the last study regarding this topic was published in 2009.
Using data from the 2019 Medicare Physician and Other Practitioners Public Use Files, the authors searched for the total volume and specific percentage of reconstructions performed by each specialty. This was done using multiple Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) codes.
Following statistical analysis, the authors discovered that 85.4% of all cutaneous reconstructions were performed by dermatologists in 2019, an increase from the studied percentage in 2009. Subgroup analysis also showed that dermatologists completed the largest portion of intermediate repairs (90.5%), complex repairs (91.5%), adjacent tissue transfers (67.4%), and full-thickness skin grafts (78.7%). Dermatologists were the 2nd largest contributors to performing simple repairs (26.7%) and split-thickness skin grafts (21.5%). One weakness of this study is it may have limited generalizability as the analysis was only performed in the Medicare population.
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