Associated factors in delayed diagnosis of pediatric spinal tumors

English Keywords:Pediatric  Spinal tumors  Delay  Diagnosis

English Abstract:

  【Abstract】 Objectives: To investigate the associated factors in delayed diagnosis of pediatric spinal tumors. Methods: Patients under 16 years old with spinal tumors were retrospectively investigated from January 2007 to January 2017. Age, gender, tumor characteristics, lesion segment, place of residence, only child or not, grade of first hospital visit, be wrongly diagnosed or not were collected according to clinical medical records. The correlation between patients and diagnosis delay and these factors were analyzed by single factor analysis and multiple-factor logistic regression. Results: 51 patients were retrospectively investigated. There were 28 males and 23 females. The mean age was 9.5±4.1 years. Patient lag time was 1.3, (0-24) months, diagnosis lag time was 1.0, (0-12) months. The rate of patient and diagnosis delay was 39.2% and 51.0% respectively. Age and lesion segments were found significant correlation with patient delay(P＜0.05). Grade of first hospital visit and place of residence were found significant correlation with diagnosis delay(P＜0.05). Multivariate analysis showed that older children and lesion in lumbar or sacral vertebra are independent risk factors for patient delay(P＜0.05), meanwhile, grade of hospital first visited is primary hospital or children lived in rural re independent risk factors for diagnosis delay(P＜0.05). Conclusions: Lesions in lumbar and sacral vertebra and older children easily lead to patient delay. When grade of first hospital visit is primary hospital or children lived in rural, diagnosis delay is more common.