Utility of Surgical Apgar Score in Predicting Morbidity and Mortality in Post-Operative Patients

Introduction: Predicting complications forms an essential part of risk management in surgical practice. Recognising patients at high risk of developing a complication will contribute substantially to the quality of surgery and financial burden. This study aimed to assess the utility of surgical Apgar score in assessing morbidity and mortality in post-operative patients. Methods: The surgical Apgar score was calculated on all patients between 16 and 75 years undergoing surgery that required intensive perioperative monitoring in the general surgery department and correlated the score with the patient's outcomes in the form of complications, including death within 30 days of surgery. Results: Among the 214 patients, more than 70.6% of the patients were in the age group of above 40 years. The relationship with the lower surgical Apgar score is significant in terms of predicting post-operative complications ( P < 0.001). The most common comorbidities were hypertension (43.9%) and diabetes mellitus (DM) (16.4%). However, the presence of DM and coronary artery disease influenced the outcome significantly. Emergency surgeries were associated with significantly more risk of complication within 30 days of surgery. Prolonged intensive care unit care and ventilation support, sepsis and pneumonia are the major set of post-operative complications in our study. A low surgical Apgar score is associated with an increased likelihood of complications. Conclusion: The surgical Apgar system is effective in stratifying patients into high-risk and low-risk groups and anticipating post-operative complications.