A decision tree to guide long term venous access placement in children and adolescents undergoing surgery for renal tumors

Abstract

Background/PurposeWhile many children with renal tumors require long term venous access (VA) for adjuvant chemotherapy, certainly not all do. This study develops and tests a VA decision tree (DT) to direct the placement of VA in patients with renal tumors. MethodsUtilizing data readily available at surgery a VADT was developed. The VADT was tested retrospectively by 2 independent reviewers on a historic cohort. The ability of the VADT to appropriately select which patients would benefit from VA placement was tested. Results160 patients underwent renal tumor surgery between 2005 and 2018. 70 (43.8%) patients met study criteria with median age of 45.1 months (range 1.1–224); 73% required VA. Using the VADT, VA placement was “needed” in 67.1% of patients and “deferred” in 32.9%. Interrater reliability was very high (kappa = 0.97, 95% CI 0.91–1, p < 0.001). The sensitivity and specificity of the VADT to correctly decide on VA placement were 0.92 (0.8–0.98) and 1 (0.79–1). Using the VADT, no patient would have undergone unnecessary VA placement. In reality, 4.3% of patients had an unnecessary VA placed which required a subsequent removal. ConclusionsThese preliminary data support the continued study of this VADT to guide intraoperative decisions regarding VA placement in patients with renal tumors. Level of evidenceIII — Study of diagnostic test.