The Predictive Capacity of American Society of Anesthesiologists Physical Status (ASA PS) Score in Burn Patients.

Advances in burn care continues to improve survival rates and patient outcomes. There are several burn prognostic tools used to predict mortality and outcomes, however, none include patient comorbidities. We used the American Society of Anesthesiologists physical status score, as a surrogate measure for comorbidities, and evaluated its role in predicting mortality and outcomes in adult burn patients undergoing surgery. A retrospective analysis was performed on data collected from a single United States burn center, which was comprised of 183 patients. We evaluated American Society of Anesthesiologists physical status score as an independent predictor of mortality and outcomes including intensive care unit length of stay, hospital length of stay, mechanical ventilator days, and complications. We compared the American Society of Anesthesiologists physical status score to other prognostic models which included the revised Baux score, Belgian Outcome in Burn Injury, and the Abbreviated Burn Severity Index. Our results demonstrated that the revised Baux and American Society of Anesthesiologists physical status scores could be used to determine the mortality risk in adult burn patients. The revised Baux was the best predictor of mortality, intensive care unit length of stay, and mechanical ventilator days, while the Abbreviated Burn Severity Index was the best predictor of total length of stay.