RESUMO
Early recognition of sepsis and the rapid institution of therapy are absolutely essential for appropriate management of patients admitted to the hospital. Both score-generating clinical tools and clinical acumen are important for identifying the sick, while early intervention in acute deterioration is beneficial, before and after ICU admission. Several scoring systems have been devised which attempt to identify risk factors and predict outcome of different patient groups. The purpose of this pilot study was to assess the value of four mortality risk scoring systems, i.e. Mortality Probability Models [MPM] - admission, MPM -24 hours, Simplified Acute Physiology Score [SAPS] II and Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation [APACHE] II, in predicting outcome in patients admitted to the intensive care unit with sepsis. The expected outcome was calculated according to the specifications of each system and was compared to the actual outcome