Predicting Patient Outcome from Intensive Care: A Guide to APACHE, MPM, SAPS, PRISM, and Other Prognostic Scoring Systems

Abstract

Accurate prognosis is critical to the practice and im provement of intensive care. Recently, a number of gen eral prognostic scoring systems have been developed and their primary goal is to predict patient outcomes. We describe the principles underlying these systems and the methods they use to create predictions. We also explain how predictions of patient outcomes can be used to improve the precision of clinical trials, to evalu ate hospital and intensive care unit use and outcome, and eventually to assist in clinical decision-making.