The Use of qSOFA Score in the Elderly in an Internal Medicine Department—a Retrospective Cohort

Abstract

With the increased presence of the elderly in the emergency department, sepsis represents a major cause of death. The Sepsis Taskforce developed the quick SOFA (qSOFA) score which consists of only 3 items, is quick and easy to apply, and establishes a mortality risk for patients. A retrospective review of electronic records of elderly patients, admitted during a year, with an infectious disease was made. Outcomes were in-hospital mortality, admission to intensive care unit, need for invasive mechanical ventilation, non-invasive mechanical ventilation, antibiotic escalation, and length of stay. In the 310 patients, 24% had a positive qSOFA score at admission. It correlated with increased mortality (2.7 times), also increased ICU admission (3.5 times), greater need for invasive ventilation (risk ratio 4.4), non-invasive ventilation (3 times higher), and a longer length of stay (2.3 days). qSOFA was a good predictor of IMV and NIMV need, ICU admission, and death.