The relevance of severity scores in predicting outcome after cardiac arrest

Abstract

Evaluation of: Rittenberger JC, Tisherman SA, Holm MB, Guyette FX, Callaway CW. An early, novel illness severity score to predict outcome after cardiac arrest. Resuscitation doi:10.1016/j.resuscitation.2011.06.024 (2011) (Epub ahead of print).

Cardiac arrest is a major health and economic problem, with a mortality rate remaining unacceptably high. Prediction of outcome in this setting, especially if determined in the early phase after hospital admission, would allow clinicians to prioritize rapid therapeutic interventions, to better stratify patients’ severity of illness, to reconsider the intensity of care and to readdress resource utilization. This article focuses on the possibility of using a severity-of-illness score, combining the Sequential Organ Failure Assessment score and the Full Outline of Unresponsiveness score, to predict morbidity and mortality after cardiac arrest.

Keywords::

• cardiac arrest
• FOUR score
• outcome
• severity score
• SOFA score

Financial & competing interests disclosure

The authors have no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.