In the last fifteen years, a series of studies developing a prognostic scoring system for the evaluation of critically il1 patients has been target. This project developed at the Hospital Regional de São José Dr. Homero de Miranda Gomes Intensive Care Unit evalvetd the APACHE II scoring system 's applicability and accuracy to surgical patients of this unit. All the surgical patients requiring intensive care for a period longer than 24 hours between January and July of 1996, were prospectively studied (n=84). The average age of the group was 52.7:1: 19.8 range between 13 and 86 years. Sixty one patients (72.62%) were male and 23 (27.38%) female. Fifty-six patients (66.67%) were submitted to emergency surgery and 28 patients (33.33%) to elective surgery. Thirthy-two patients (38.09%) died in the hospital. The predictive mortality of APACHE II scoring system was 24.6 %, with a Standardized Mortality Rate (SMR) of I .55. The SMR to the 30 or less APACHE II points patients was 1.36, while greater than 30 was 1.62. The APACHE II score for the group was the 17.16 (:I: 9.4). The APACHE II scoring system effectively predicted mortality for this group, mainly among the 30 points or less APACHE II point group.
APACHE II; Predictive outcome