Evaluation of P Possum Equation in Emergency Laparotomy

Abstract

The Portsmouth modification of Physiological and Operative Severity Score for the enumeration of Mortality and morbidity (P POSSUM) is a scoring system that is used to predict 30 day mortality and morbidity rates in patients who are undergoing surgery. The method is used in predicting mortality and morbidity in patients undergoing surgeries in different departments like V POSSUM for vascular, CR POSSUM for colorectal surgeries. Here we have tried to evaluate P POSSUM equation in predicting mortality and morbidity in patients undergoing emergency laparotomy. During the study period, 72 emergency laparotomies were performed in our hospital .All the consecutive cases were taken for the study. P POSSUM equation was applied to all the patients and the risk of mortality was calculated. The estimated rates were compared with observed rates using linear by linear association of chi-square test. P POSSUM equation clearly predicted mortality rates with linear by linear association of chi square test with P value of ‹0.001. The ROC (Receiver operating characteristic) curve shows the predictive potential of P POSSSUM for mortality with a sensitivity of 100%, specificity of 88.89% and area under the curve 98.1%. The study shows that p possum equation predicts mortality in patients undergoing emergency laparotomies almost same as observed mortality. So if this finding is validated, it can be used in patients undergoing emergency laparotomies.