Around 39 percent of patients waiting for elective orthopedic surgery had their procedure cancelled at least once, some several times, according to a study published in Patient Safety in Surgery.
The retrospective, observational, single-center study conducted in Sweden included 17,625 elective patients scheduled for joint replacement, arthroscopy and foot and ankle surgery, whose procedure was cancelled at least once.
The study found that the most common reason for canceling a planned surgery was patient-related factors. Nearly 30 percent of cancellations were due to treatment guarantee legislation reached and 12 percent of the cancellations were related to incomplete preoperative preparation of the patients. Organizational reasons were the cause of approximately 9 percent of the cancellations.
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