Study on Average Length of Stay of Childhood Cancer Patients in a Tertiary Hospital of Lucknow, India

The present work to evaluate various paediatric cancers needing hospitalization and various factors affecting the average length of stay in hospital and also suggest the measures for reduction in length of hospital stay. It is a hospital based descriptive study, where data was collected from case records of the children admitted during year 2010 in Department of Paediatrics, C.S.M. Medical University UP, Lucknow and comprised of all registered patients with cancer aged 0–15 years and were under treatment. During one year 253 cases were registered with 36 deaths. Pretested Questionnaire was used to collect general and specific information about various factors influencing Length of hospital stay. About 71.1% and 28.9% patients were male and females, respectively. Mortality ratio was more in males (9.9%) than females (4.3%). Majority of patients admitted were Hindus 80.6% and only 19.0% were Muslims. Maximum Hospital stay (35%) patient were in the age group 1–4 years. Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia (ALL) 24.1% was the commonest among childhood cancer with 18.0% mortality rate with 31.2 days average length of stay in hospital.