Syncope: a narrative review of the scores and their applicability in the emergency room

Abstract

To explain the clinical scores related to syncope and their applicability in the management of this syndrome. Methods: Narrative review of the literature based on 32 articles that ranged between 2019 and 2023. Results: Syncope, in most cases, has an underlying benign etiology. However, 20% of patients who consult emergency services present manifestations of concomitant potentially fatal disease, generally of cardiovascular origin. Scales that can be used to assess short-term outcomes include the São Francisco scale, for predicting death and serious events within 7 days; the Boston Scale, ROSE and the Canadian Syncope Risk Score, which seek to predict serious events within a month. The EGSYS and OESIL scales, in turn, are used for long-term assessment, the first to predict serious outcomes within one year and the second within two years. Conclusion: It was evident that the Canadian Syncope Risk Score represents the score with the best performance and greatest applicability in the clinical context. However, this score still has significant limitations -low specificity, for example -, making additional studies essential.