The use of SAPS 3, SOFA, and Glasgow Coma Scale to predict mortality in patients with subarachnoid hemorrhage: A retrospective cohort study

Guidelines for patients with subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) management and several grading systems or prognostic indices have been used not only to improve the quality of care but to predict also the outcome of these patients. Among them, the gold standards Fisher radiological grading scale, Hunt-Hess and the World Federation of Neurological Surgeons (WFNS) are the most employed. The objective of this study is to compare the predictive values of simplified acute physiology score (SAPS) 3, sequential organ failure assessment (SOFA), and Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) in the outcome of patients with aneurysmal SAH. Fifty-one SAH patients (33% males and 67% females; mean age of 54.1 ± 10.3 years) admitted to the intensive care units (ICU) in the post-operative phase were retrospectively studied. The patients were divided into survivors (n=37) and nonsurvivors (n = 14). SAPS 3, Fischer scale, WFNS, SOFA, and GCS were recorded on ICU admission (day 1 – D1), and 72-hours (day 3 – D3) SOFA, and GCS. The capability of each index SAPS 3, SOFA, and GCS (D1 and D3) to predict mortality was analyzed by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves. The area under the ROC curve (AUC) and the respective confidence interval (CI) were used to measure the index accuracy. The level of significance was set at P < .05. The mean SAPS 3, SOFA, and GCS on D1 were 13.5 ± 12.7, 3.1 ± 2.4, and 13.7 ± 2.8 for survivors and 32.5 ± 28.0, 5.6 ± 4.9, and 13.5 ± 1.9 for nonsurvivors, respectively. The AUC and 95% CI for SAPS 3, SOFA, and GCS on D1 were 0.735 (0.592–0.848), 0.623 (0.476–0.754), 0.565 (0.419–0.703), respectively. The AUC and 95% CI for SOFA and GCS on D3 were 0.768 (0.629–0.875) and 0.708 (0.563–0.826), respectively. The overall mortality was 37.8%. Even though SAPS 3 and Fischer scale predicted mortality better on admission (D1), both indices SOFA and GCS performed similarly to predict outcome in SAH patients on D3.