TITLE:
Cancellation Causes of Elective Surgical Procedures in a Major Pediatric Surgery Department
AUTHORS:
Salsabil Mohamed Sabounji, Mbaye Fall, Cheikh Seye, Mouhamadou Mansour Diene, Gabriel Ngom
KEYWORDS:
Cancellation, Elective Surgery, URTI, Pediatric Surgery, Surgical Procedures
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Pediatrics,
Vol.12 No.1,
March
2,
2022
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.