Abstract
OBJECTIVE: To determine the causes for cancellation of elective surgeries at Chandka Medical College hospital, Larkana.
METHODOLGY: Descriptive study having 3024 sample size, conducted at Chandka Medical College Hospital Larkana from Jan 2012 to December 2012. All the elective operations put on OT List were included in study while Minor cases, done under local anesthesia and emergency Cases were excluded.
Data Collection:- Data was collected from all general surgical wards for patients put on OT List. Bio Data & reasons for cancellation were noted on specifically designed proforma.
Reasons of cancellation were broadly classified in to, patient-related factors (including medical e.g hypertension, diabetes, anemia and respiratory tract infection and non-medical e.g non-attendance, medically unfit, no arrangement of blood, non-fasting and financial issue), surgeon- related factors (including no surgeon, change in decision and shortage of time), administrative -factors (including electricity break down, sudden strike and instrument failure) and shortage of anesthetists.
Data Analysis: Data was analyzed by using SPSS version 15. Percentage of each reason of cancellation was calculated.
RESULT: During 1 year study total of 3024 cases were put on OT list among them 484 (16%) were cancelled on operative day.
Patient-related factors (58%) were most common cause of cancellation followed by administrative factors (20%), surgeon-related factor (18%) and shortage of anesthetists observed in 5% case.
CONCLUSION: Most of the causes of cancellations are avoidable. Proper pre-operative optimization and counseling can reduce cancellation rate. OT list should be prepared judiciously. Patient’s selection, time factor, required instruments, alternate of electricity and selection of surgeon during distribution of cases, can minimize the cancellation rate of elective cases.

Key words: Elective surgery cancellation, medically unfit, shortage of time, no proper counseling.