Multiple Organ Dysfunction Score
John C. Marshall, Deborah J. Cook, Nicolas V. Christou, Gordon R. Bernard, Charles L. Sprung, William J. Sibbald
Critical Care Medicine
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: To develop an objective scale to measure the severity of the multiple organ dysfunction syndrome as an outcome in critical illness. DESIGN: Systematic literature review; prospective cohort study. SETTING: Surgical intensive care unit (ICU) of a tertiary-level teaching hospital. PATIENTS: All patients (n = 692) admitted for > 24 hrs between May 1988 and March 1990. INTERVENTIONS: None. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: Computerized database review of MEDLINE identified clinical studies of multiple organ failure that were published between 1969 and 1993. Variables from these studies were evaluated for construct and content validity to identify optimal descriptors of organ dysfunction. Clinical and laboratory data were collected daily to evaluate the performance of these variables ind