Predicting Pediatric Sepsis Outcomes: A Comparison of 3 Sepsis Risk Scores in Bangladesh

Pediatric sepsis remains a leading cause of child mortality worldwide. Early risk stratification using organ dysfunction scores may improve management. Bangladesh bears a high burden of pediatric infectious disease and sepsis, particularly in children under 5. This study compared the predictive performance of admission PELOD-2, pSOFA, and Phoenix Sepsis Scores for in-hospital mortality among pediatric sepsis patients.

We conducted a secondary analysis of an observational study at a tertiary hospital in Dhaka, Bangladesh (February-December 2022). Of 100 enrolled children aged 2 months to 18 years with sepsis, 96 had sufficient data for score calculation.

Median age was 8 months (IQR 5-18), and in-hospital mortality was 23%. Admission PELOD-2 >3 and pSOFA >6 were associated with increased mortality. AUCs for mortality were 0.83 (pSOFA), 0.82 (PELOD-2), and 0.79 (Phoenix).

All 3 scores showed good mortality discrimination. pSOFA and Phoenix may be more feasible in low-resource settings.