A simple morbidity prediction tool for the critically ill patients: Experience in a single unit

Introduction: Monitoring intensive care performance is an essential component in improving the outcome of critically ill patients. Introduction of scoring systems such as Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation (APACHE), Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) scores etc had played a pivotal role in managing critically ill patients. The objective of our study was to evaluate the application of a simple prognostication tool - the Tropical Intensive Care Score (TICS) in the Sri Lankan ICU setting and compare the outcome with APACHE score.
Methods: One thousand patients admitted to Surgical Intensive Care Unit at Colombo South Teaching Hospital during the period from 2019 to 2023 were analysed using TICS. In patients who had TICS greater than 70%, the APACHE score was calculated in retrospect. Considering APACHE score as the gold standard, sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values were calculated for TICS.
Results: The sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values of TICS were 99.3%, 100%, 100% and 98.1% respectively when calculated against APACHE score.
Conclusions: TICS was found to be a simple, easily applicable prognosticating tool and closely corelates with that of APACHE making it suitable for low-income setting like in Sri Lanka