Laboratory tests to identify patients at risk of early major adverse events: A prospective pilot study

Abstract

Background/Aims: To test whether commonly measured laboratory variables can identify surgical patients at risk of major adverse events (death, unplanned intensive care unit (ICU) admission or rapid response team (RRT) activation). Methods: We conducted a prospective observational study in a surgical ward of a university-affiliated hospital in a cohort of 834 surgical patients admitted for >24h. We applied a previously validated multivariable model-derived risk assessment to each combined set of common laboratory tests to identify patients at risk. We compared the clinical course of such patients with that of control patients from the same ward who had blood tests but were identified as low r..