preview

Asa Score Essay

Decent Essays

Our study validates that the Perioperative Risk Assessment Score using patient’s characteristics and urgency of the surgical procedure can reliably predict postoperative mortality. In addition, we show that despite a good prediction of mortality, the ASA score has a large range of intervariability that may limit its use as shown in figure 4. Developed in 1941, the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) classification was created to establish a scoring system (I to V) for the evaluation of a patient’s general health and comorbidities immediately before an operative procedure. (Sakad, Keats) This score is designed to identify surgical patients at risk for developing postoperative complications, taking into account the patient’s physical state and neglecting the surgical impact (type, complexity and urgency). It has been established as a significant predictive factor for perioperative risk assessment, perioperative mortality, complication rates, and postoperative outcomes in multiple surgical specialties. ( Menke, Wolters, Prause, Conners) Similarly, our data shows a good predictability of mortality by the ASA PS. It has undergone slight modification by the ASA to a scale of 6 numbers and is now widely used for preoperative …show more content…

However, the ASA-PS has a wide variability leading to inconsistencies between anesthesiologists that may lead to incorrect clinical assessment and over- or under- estimation of financial revenue. (Haynes, Owens). Levels of agreement between anesthesiologist for the ASA PS classes range from 40% to 60%. (Mak) In other words, they are equally likely to disagree or agree on a particular ASA class for a patient. The wide range of variability is shown in figure 4. Therefore, although the ASA PS score can be predictive of mortality and outcomes, its variability calls for a more precise risk assessment score similar to the BAL.

Get Access