A retrospective observational study evaluating the association between vasoactive–inotropic score and mortality after major abdominal surgery

The relationship between VIS max and mortality in patients undergoing major abdominal surgery remains unclear. This study aims to evaluate the association between VIS max and both short-term and long-term all-cause mortality in patients undergoing major abdominal surgery, VIS max was calculated (VIS max = dopamine dose [µg/kg/min] + dobutamine dose [µg/kg/min] + 100 × epinephrine dose [µg/kg/min] + 10 × milrinone dose [µg/kg/min] + 10,000 × vasopressin dose [units/kg/min] + 100 × norepinephrine dose [µg/kg/min]) using the maximum dosing rates of vasoactives and inotropics within the first 24 h postoperative ICU admission. The study included 512 patients first admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) who were administered vasoactive drugs after major abdominal surgery. The data was extracted from the medical information mart in intensive care-IV database. VIS max was stratified into five categories: 0–5, > 5–15, > 15–30, > 30–45, and > 45. Compared to patients with the lowest VIS max (≤ 5), those with the high VIS max (> 45) had an increased risk of 30-day mortality (hazard ratio [HR] 3.73, 95% CI 1.16–12.02; P = 0.03) and 1-year mortality (HR 2.76, 95% CI 1.09–6.95; P = 0.03) in fully adjusted Cox models. The ROC analysis for VIS max predicting 30-day and 1-year mortality yielded AUC values of 0.69 (95% CI 0.64–0.75) and 0.67 (95% CI 0.62–0.72), respectively. In conclusion, elevated VIS max within the first postoperative 24 h after ICU admission was associated with increased risks of both short-term and long-term mortality in patients undergoing major abdominal surgery.