SOFA (sequential organ failure assessment)score as a prognostic marker in ICU patients of a tertiary care teaching hospital

Sepsis is one of the important problems in medicine due to its complexity from pathophysiologic, clinical, and therapeutic viewpoints. Although several deï¬nitions have been proposed for this syndrome, in general, it can be assumed that it represents the clinical manifestation of a systemic response of the body to infection or to an inflammatory-associated acute disease.Mortality rates as a result of sepsis are associated with a pattern characterized by progressive dysfunction or failure of non-pulmonary organ systems, including neurologic, coagulation, and renal functions over the ï¬rst 3 days.[3] Various scoring systems such as Glasgow scale, APACHE II and III and sequential organ failure assessment (SOFA) scoring have been validated and are being used in predicting prognosis of patients admitted in intensive care unit (ICU). In this study, sepsis in the ICU of a tertiary care hospital was evaluated, with speciï¬c reference to clinical features and SOFA score. The SOFA score was calculated to assess the severity of sepsis and multi-organ failure at presentation and after 48 h. These SOFA and mean SOFA scores were correlated with outcomes. Furthermore, multi-organ dysfunction was assessed with respect to organ systems involved and their correlation with mortality. Sequential assessment of organ dysfunction in patients in ICU at presentation and at 48 h, is one of the important parameters for predicting mortality.