Background: Children with cancer undergo serial invasive, painful procedures as a part of their diagnosis, treatment, and surveillance regimens that require procedural sedation (PS). Some may have a delay in their treatment plan due to same-day cancelation (SDC) of the procedure due to issues related to sedation or other factors. The objective of this report was to evaluate the factors resulting in the SDC of hematology and oncology patients in an outpatient pediatric sedation service.
Methods: Retrospective review of children with cancer or other hematologic disorders undergoing outpatient procedures using a dedicated pediatric sedation team from January 2012 to December 2017. The children with SDC were compared to controls (ie, patients not canceled) during the above study period.
Results: A total of 100 patients had SDC during the study. The median age was 10 years (25th percentile to 75th percentile: 7-10 years). The overall SDC rate was 3% and 78/100 (78%) had acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Most common procedure was lumbar puncture with intrathecal chemotherapy in 82/100 (82%) patients. Inadequate blood counts, acute illness, and not nil per os (NPO) accounted for 83% of the reasons for SDC. Type of health insurance, estimated household income, or distance traveled to the clinic did not impact SDC.
Conclusions: The most common factors for SDC included inadequate blood counts, acute illness, and not meeting NPO guidelines. Understanding factors affecting SDC may help improve the efficiency of time-sensitive care delivered to children with cancer and other hematologic concerns by a pediatric sedation service.
Keywords: Blood cell count; bone marrow aspirate; lumbar puncture; nothing by mouth; procedural sedation; same-day cancelation.