Sequential Organ Failure Assessment Score Modified for Recent Infection in Patients With Hematologic Malignant Tumors and Severe Sepsis.

BACKGROUND: Baseline health status influences outcomes of severe sepsis.
OBJECTIVE: To determine if recent infection is a marker of poor health in patients with hematologic malignant tumors and severe sepsis by modifying the Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) score to account for infection.
METHODS: Medical records of the first 50 patients with hematologic malignant tumors and severe sepsis admitted from September 1, 2009 to September 1, 2014, were reviewed to derive a modified SOFA score. The predictive accuracy of the modified score was compared with that of the unmodified score and the Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation (APACHE) II score for the 196 subsequent patients.
RESULTS: The area under the receiver operator characteristic curve was 0.73 (95% CI, 0.66-0.80) for the modified score, 0.68 (95% CI, 0.61-0.76) for the unmodified score, and 0.65 (95% CI, 0.58-0.73) for the APACHE II score. The modified score was better for discriminating survivors from nonsurvivors than the unmodified score (P = .005) and the APACHE II score (P = .04). After adjustments for the modified score and age, only increased days from hospital to intensive care unit admission was significantly associated with 30-day mortality.
CONCLUSION: Modifying the SOFA score to account for infections before admission to the intensive care unit improved the prognostic usefulness of the scores for patients with hematologic malignant tumors and severe sepsis. ©2016 American Association of Critical-Care Nurses.