Comparison of different scoring systems for predicting in-hospital mortality for patients with Fournier gangrene

PURPOSE: To compare different scoring systems for predicting in-hospital mortality in patients with Fournier gangrene (FG). METHODS: A comprehensive literature search was performed to find all scoring systems that have been proposed previously as a predictor for in-hospital mortality in patients with FG. Data of all patients with FG who were hospitalized in one of Indonesia’s largest tertiary referral hospitals between 2012 and 2022 were used. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was performed to evaluate the diagnostic performance of the scoring systems. RESULTS: Ten scoring systems were found, i.e., Fournier’s Gangrene Severity Index (FGSI), Uludag FGSI, simplified FGSI, NUMUNE Fournier score (NFS), Laboratory Risk Indicator for Necrotizing Fasciitis, age-adjusted Charlson comorbidity index, sequential organ failure assessment (SOFA), quick SOFA, acute physiology and chronic health evaluation II, and surgery APGAR score (SAS). Of 164 FG patients included in the analyses, 26.4% died during hospitalization. All scoring systems except SAS could predict in-hospital mortality of patients with FG. Three scoring systems had areas under the ROC curve (AUROC) higher than 0.8, i.e., FGSI (AUROC 0.905, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.860–0.950), SOFA (AUROC 0.830, 95% CI 0.815–0.921), and NFS (AUROC 0.823, 95% CI 0.739–0.906). Both FGSI and SOFA had sensitivity and NPV of 1.0, whereas NFS had a sensitivity of 0.74 and an NPV of 0.91. CONCLUSION: This study shows that FGSI and SOFA are the most reliable scoring systems to predict in-hospital mortality in FG, as indicated by the high AUROC and perfect sensitivity and NPV. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s00345-023-04552-3.