Pre-injury ASA physical status classification is an independent predictor of mortality after trauma

Background: The ability of an organism to withstand trauma is determined by the injury per se and inherent properties of the organism at the time of injury. We analyzed whether pre-injury morbidity scored on a four-level ordinal scale according to the American Society of Anesthesiologists Physical Status (ASA-PS) classification system predicts mortality after trauma. Materials: From a total of 3,773 prospectively collected patients (years 2000-2004), 3,728 patients were included. Main outcome measure was mortality 30 days after injury. The effect of pre-injury ASA-PS on mortality was assessed using linear logistic regression analysis, controlling for Revised Trauma Score (RTS), Injury Severity Score (ISS), and age. Results: Mortality increased with increasing pre-injury ASA-PS, age, and ISS, and with decreasing RTS. Unadjusted mortality rates were 5.7% in ASA-PS 1, 12.3% in ASA-PS 2, and 26.4% in ASA-PS 3-4. This increasing mortality trend across pre-injury ASA-PS group was evident in nearly all categories of ISS, RTS, and age. Odds ratio for death was 1.76 (95% CI, 1.14-2.72) for pre-injury ASA-PS 2, and 2.25 (95% CI, 1.36-3.71) for ASA-PS 3-4 compared with for ASA-PS 1 and adjusted for ISS, RTS, and age. There were no interaction effects between pre-injury ASA-PS and the other variables. Conclusions: Pre-injury ASA-PS score was an independent predictor of mortality after trauma, also after adjusting for the major variables in the traditional TRISS (Trauma and Injury Severity Score) formula. Including pre-injury ASA-PS score might improve the predictive power of a survival prediction model without complicating it.