Usefulness of the SAFARI score for predicting convulsive seizure in patients with aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: The SAFARI score was introduced to assess the risk of convulsive seizure during admission for aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage in 2017. This study was conducted to determine whether the SAFARI score derived from the afore-mentioned study could be applied to patients with aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage in Korea. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective study of patients who were diagnosed with aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage from March 2013 to October 2017. Patients' age, sex, blood pressure, pulse rate, body temperature, Glasgow-Coma Scale, Hunt-Hess scale, modified Fisher grade, size of ruptured aneurysm, surgery type, transfusion, and SAFARI score were compared between the seizure and non-seizure groups. The area under the receiver operator characteristic curves was calculated to evaluate the predictive ability for seizure during admission. Logistic regression analysis was used to analyze predictive factors for seizure during admission. RESULTS: A total of 220 patients were included. Ninety-seven (44.1%) were male and 123 (55.9%) were female. The mean age of the patients was 65.8 years old (range, 56–75). The area under the curve of the SAFARI score for predicting seizure was 0.813. The SAFARI score was the only significant predictor of seizure during admission, while other factors were not statistically significant upon logistic regression analysis. CONCLUSION: The SAFARI score could be used for predicting seizure during admission in patients with aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage.