Can POSSUM, a scoring system for perioperative surgical risk, predict postoperative clinical course?

POSSUM, a Physiological and Operative Severity Score for the enUmeration of Mortality and morbidity, is a scoring system which assesses perioperative surgical risks (Copeland GP et al.: Br J Surg, 1991, Vol 78, 356-360). The POSSUM scoring system consists of two categories of assessment to assess th e risk of surgery. A 12-factor (age, cardiac status, pulse rate, systolic b lood pressure, respiratory status, Glasgow Coma Score, serum concentration of urea, potassium and sodium, hemoglobin concentration, white cell count a nd findings on electrocardiography) and 4-grade physiological score (PS) we re developed. This was combined with a 6-factor (type of surgical procedure , number of procedures, bloodless, peritoneal soiling, presence of malignan cy and mode of surgery) and 4-grade operative severity score (OSS). The pre sent paper attempts to validate it retrospectively. Postoperative hospitali zation period and duration of antibiotics administration were both signific antly correlated with OSS, but not with PS. These results suggest that the POSSUM scoring system is useful for predicting the postoperative clinical c ourse.