Cancellation Causes of Elective Surgical Procedures in a Major Pediatric Surgery Department

Abstract

Introduction: Cancellation of surgical operation is a surgical operation registered in the official schedule the day before or added to the list after and not carried out on the operating day. The purpose of this work was to determine the causes of cancellation of elective surgical operations in a major pediatric surgery department in Senegal. Patients and methods: It was a prospective and descriptive study of 278 patients scheduled during a period of 13 weeks. The study took place between April 3rd, 2017, and January 31st, 2018. Mean age was 2.9 years with extremes of 3 days and 15 years. The age group of 29 days to 30 months was the most represented (62.2%). Sex ratio was 1.41. Causes of cancellation were categorized into administrative and organizational causes, patient-related causes and staff-related causes. Results: Cancellation rate was 29.4%. Patient-related causes were most common (51.2%). Upper Respiratory tract infection (URTI) was commonest reason within this category (57.5%). Organizational causes (28.1%) came second and were mainly represented by the unavailability of the operating room (60.8%) related to breakdowns of anesthesia equipment. Finally, staff-related causes (20.7%) were due for most to the unavailability of the anesthesiologist (12 cases/17). Conclusion: Majority of causes that led to cancellation of elective surgical operations in our Pediatric surgery department are related to intercurrent illnesses affecting the patient, in particular URTI.