EuroSCORE (European System for Cardiac Operative Risk Evaluation): Is it realistic?

It was the purpose of our study to assess the validity of EuroSCORE in our patient population. Between March 1999 and September 2000, information on risk factors and mortality was collected for 625 consecutive adult patients undergoing heart surgery with cardiopulmonary bypass. EuroSCORE was used for risk stratification. Mean age ± standard deviation was 58.6 ± 10.8 and 28.5% of the patients were female. The ineidence of common risk factors were as follows: diabetes mellitus (17 .6%), hypertension (38.7%), chronic airway disease (8.2%), recent myocardial infaretion (3 1.4% ), chronic renal failure ( 1.7%), extracardiac arteriopathy (5.9%), reduced left ventricular ejection fraction (35.7%), previous cardiac surgery (2.7%), and non-elective operation (4.3%). Regarding epidemiology, isolated CABG accounted for 82% of adult cardiac surgery. The patients with 2 or Jess points were allocated to low risk group, with 3 to 5 points to moderate risk group, and with 6 or more to high risk group. Expected and observed mortality rates for each group were obtained. Expected and observed mortality rates for low (n = 253), moderate (n = 249), and high risk (n = 123) groups were, 1.2 ±0.8 vs O; 3.9 ± 0.8 vs 0.8 ± 0.9;_ and 8.4 ± 3.2 vs 3.2 ± 0.2, respectively. Overall, the expected and observed mortality rates were 3.7 ± 3.1 vs 0.96±9.8. There was no overlap between the 95% cofidence intervals of observed and expected mortality in all three groups (pKeywords: Open heart surgery, EuroSCORE