Utility of Sequential Organ Failure Assessment score in predicting bacteremia in critically ill burn patients.

Background: We evaluated whether qSOFA ≥2 and an increase in SOFA (ΔSOFA) ≥2 can help predict bacteremia in a critically ill burn population.

Methods: Patients age ≥15 and TBSA ≥15% admitted between 2009 and 2015 were included. All blood cultures were recorded, and positive and negative blood culture days were defined based on the culture results. SOFA and qSOFA scores were compared between positive and negative blood culture days.

Results: There were 50 patients in our study with a mean age of 47yrs and mean TBSA burn of 37%. Bacteremic patients had larger TBSA and full thickness burns, higher revised Baux score, and longer hospital LOS, without a difference in mortality, compared to non-bacteremic patients. There was no difference in qSOFA and SOFA scores between positive and negative blood culture days. A ΔSOFA ≥5 was highly specific for positive blood culture days.

Conclusions: SOFA and qSOFA have limited ability to predict bacteremia in critically ill burn patients.