Background: Surgery cancellation on the day of surgery is one of the significant drains on the health sources is the cancellation of surgery. Short-notice cancellation of scheduled operations at the last minute, even up to the day of surgery is one of the major persistent problems in most of the renowned hospitals. The late cancellation of scheduled operations is a major cause of the inefficient use of operating room time and is thus a waste of resources. Literature quotes very little data which highlights the reasons for cancellation of elective surgeries. Hence; we retrospectively analyzed the reasons for cancellation of elective surgeries in an institutional hospital. Materials & Methods: The present study was carried out in the department of surgery by analyzing the records of all patients from June 2012 to July 2014. Exclusion criteria included patients who underwent procedures that did not require an anaesthetist and those patients who received cancellation of the surgery from the ward. Those patients that were scheduled in the operative list, were shifted to the operation theatre but did not have the planned surgery on the intended date were included under the category of cancelled operations. All the results were summarized in the Microsoft excel sheet and evaluated. Results: A total of 3700 surgeries were scheduled in the study period out of which approximately 7% were cancelled on the day of surgery. All the valid reasons for cancellation of surgery were divided into four main groups.. These included surgeon related, administration related, work-up related and lastly failure due to reasons related to the patient.  Surgeon related cancellation of the surgeries were the most common cause which accounted for over 40% of the total surgeries cancelled. Conclusion: Cancellation of surgical procedures on the day of surgery creates a significant problem for the hospital.
Key Words: Cancellation, Elective, Surgery