Serial measurement of Therapeutic Intervention Scoring System-28 (TISS-28) in a surgical intensive care unit

The aim of the study was to assess the use of the Therapeutic Intervention Scoring System-28 (TISS-28) in surgical intensive care unit (ICU) patients and the relationship of the score to the type of surgery, severity of illness, and outcome in these patients.

Prospectively collected data from all patients admitted to a postoperative ICU between March 1, 2004, and June 30, 2006, were analyzed retrospectively.

A total of 6903 patients were admitted during the study period (63.5% male; mean age, 62.3 years) constituting 29 140 observation days. The mean Simplified Acute Physiology Score (SAPS) II, Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA), and TISS-28 scores on the day of ICU admission were 36.9 ± 18.2, 5.8 ± 3.9, and 43.2 ± 10.8, respectively. The highest admission TISS-28 was observed in patients who underwent cardiothoracic surgery (47.7 ± 10.1), the lowest in neurosurgical patients (40 ± 9.6), and both declined during the 2 weeks after ICU admission; however, in trauma patients and those admitted after gastrointestinal surgery, TISS scores increased gradually after the first 2 to 5 days in the ICU. The TISS-28 score was moderately correlated to SAPS II (R(2) = 0.42; P < .001) and SOFA score (R(2) = 0.48; P < .001) throughout the ICU stay and was consistently higher in nonsurvivors than in survivors during the first 2 weeks in the ICU.

There are marked variations in TISS-28 scores according to the type of surgery. Therapeutic Intervention Scoring System-28 correlates with the severity of illness and outcome in these patients.