The combined score of quick SOFA and the charlson comorbidity index could be a poor prognostic indicator for in-hospital mortality among patients with necrotizing fasciitis.

INTRODUCTION

While necrotizing fasciitis (NF) is a rare but rapidly progressive devastating soft tissue infectious disease showing a high in-hospital mortality rate of 20-30%, there are no evidence-based predictive tools.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

For the purpose of examining which predictive tools could correctly reflect the severity and prognosis of NF, we retrospectively reviewed all patients who were diagnosed with NF at our institute. The disease severity was evaluated by quick SOFA (qSOFA), SOFA score, SIRS score, APACHE II score, LRINEC score and the combined score of qSOFA and CCI.

RESULTS

A total of 27 patients were enrolled in this study. The median age was 68 years (range 39-96 years). With respect to the predictive values for in-hospital mortality among NF patients, the area under the ROC curve for qSOFA, SOFA score, APACHE II score, the combined score of qSOFA and CCI were 0.653 (p = 0.192), 0.588 (p = 0.12), 0.709 (p = 0.075) and 0.782 (p = 0.016) respectively. A univariate analysis showed that the combined score of qSOFA and CCI≥5 and the initial treatment failure were poor prognostic indicators for the in-hospital death among NF patients. The appropriate cut-offs of qSOFA and CCI were based on the Youden Index.

CONCLUSION

We concluded that the combined score of qSOFA and CCI could reflect the severity and prognosis of NF for in-hospital death.