Predicting Major Complications Following Laparotomy for Gastrointestinal Conditions Using Surgical Apgar Score: A Prospective Analysis in a Nigerian Population.

Background: Surgical Apgar score (SAS) is one of the risk assessment tools used in predicting postoperative complications. It is a simple and inexpensive tool composed of three intra-operative variables; lowest heart rate, lowest mean arterial blood pressure, and estimated blood loss, which are scored with a total of 10 points, based on which patients are risk stratified for developing post-operative complications. SAS was found to have good predictive accuracy for post-operative morbidity and mortality.