Accuracy of Scoring Systems for Risk Assessment in Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Sohag University Hospital

Early detection of neonates with higher risk of death is quite important for paying more attention to these cases, timely referral to tertiary neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), and provision of meticulous critical care, which ultimately may improve outcomes. Several scoring systems have recently been developed for assessment of the intensity of illness and prognosticate the risk of not only neonatal mortality but also short- and long-term morbidities. The accuracy of these scoring systems has been investigated in several NICUs from different countries, such as USA, UK, Canada, Brazil, India, and Iran. Previous Egyptian studies have investigated the accuracy of Clinical Risk Index for Babies II (CRIB II), Score for Neonatal Acute Physiology II (SNAP-II) and its Perinatal Extension II (SNAPPE-II). However, the accuracy of Sensorium, temperature, oxygenation, perfusion, skin color, and blood sugar (STOPS), Modified Sick neonatal Score (MSNS), and neonatal sequential organ failure assessment (nSOFA) has not been investigated in Egyptian NICUs. Therefore, more studies are required to investigate the utility and accuracy of neonatal risk assessment scores in Egyptian NICUs.